by Layla Nash
Which only made Maisy grin more. She really loved any opportunity to tease Jess, or Griggs, or Isla. Or anyone, really. Jess figured the doctor was bored, always hanging out in the sick bay by herself, so maybe she had a lot of time to figure out ways to needle people.
But it was Mrax who raised his eyebrows and pretended to study some medical equipment on the counter, even though he glanced over at her with a sly smile. “Perhaps it was Trazzak?”
Jess wished she had something to throw. “Like I said, it was a misunderstanding I wanted to clear up.”
“Sure.” Mrax waggled his eyebrows and handed some of the stuff over to Maisy, then headed for the door. “I’ll go check on the crew, make sure there aren’t any injuries.”
Another massive explosion rolled through the ship, and Jess groaned. Still in the middle of a fight, and the doctors got all distracted by gossip. She needed to tell Isla to get the officers back in shape. Even if they weren’t really Alliance officers anymore, they still needed the discipline and good order to survive.
It wasn’t long before a call came down to sick bay for more medical assistance; enough crew were injured trying to put out the fires and repair the ship that Maisy was needed, since Mrax went with a boarding crew to take over the cutter. Jess gripped the bed rails until her knuckles ached. Taking over the cutter? She needed to be there so she could figure out what the pirates actually wanted and exploit their systems before the Xaravians mucked things up. There was no telling how much data would be lost if the pirates had a chance to wipe the systems; they’d be deleting everything as soon as it became clear the Xaravians would board the ship.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about it. It wasn’t her job anymore. They could figure out what the pirates wanted from interrogating them, if any survived, and she needed to focus on saving her own life and those of her friends. The moment the Galaxos popped up outside of rebel space, the bounty hunters would be on them, and apparently the bounty was enough to chase the Galaxos back into the rebel-held territory.
Jess waited until Maisy ran out of sick bay carrying several bags of supplies, then took the relay out of her pocket. Trazzak almost wiped everything off it with his meddling, but luckily the newer relays were designed to resist any amount of tampering. She opened it up again and lay back, exhausted to the point that she saw double. Jess wanted to get her thoughts in order before Isla or Vaant showed up to demand she explain everything that Trazzak revealed on the bridge.
Nathan’s message waited for her, brief and to the point: Acquire the technology and pass it to me, and we will arrange for your troubles to go away. Contact me in the regular manner and we can arrange the details.
Apparently Trazzak knew more about the technology, or at least scanned through the information on the chip. Jess sighed, searching for any other messages from Nathan or the Minister. She could figure it all out — a way to get rid of the bounties without stealing the technology, a way to keep her friends safe. It had to be possible.
She froze as the sick bay door slid open and Isla stood there, hands on her hips. “What the hell is going on?”
Jess cut off the relay. “Are we still under attack?”
“No, Trazzak led the boarding party and subdued the pirates.” Isla marched in and stood over the bed, her irritation clear. “We’re headed back to the base to get cleaned up. We can’t keep doing this, Jess, so you’d better start talking. What did Trazzak mean when he asked if you caused the attack? What was that device you were looking at? What are you hiding, damn it?”
At least it was just Isla, and none of the giant Xaravians filled the room. Jess could talk to Isla, and at least stand a chance of being heard before the other woman flipped out. “You’ve gotta give me a chance, Isla. Just listen.”
Isla’s eyes narrowed as she braced for the bad news, but she pulled a chair up next to the bed and gripped the arms. “Go on.”
“I’ve been in contact with the Ministry.”
Isla immediately sat forward. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding —”
“You said you would hear me out,” Jess said, cutting her off. “Come on, Isla. You know I had a good reason. You have to believe me.”
Isla slid lower in the chair and covered her eyes, then made a get-on-with-it gesture.
Jess took a deep breath. “I met an old colleague when we were on the spaceport. He gave me this,” she said, and held up the relay. “And told me the Ministry would make a deal with us. They offered to get rid of the bounties on our heads and the charges against us, and said they’d let us retire honorably with full pensions and everything. No more bounty hunters, no running and fighting. A peaceful retirement.”
“What do they want in return?” Isla folded her arms over her chest. “Because you know those snakes in the Ministry won’t do anything for humanitarian reasons.”
Jess wondered if Isla considered her one of the snakes in the Ministry, though chances were Isla would deny it to Jess’s face. So she focused on the things she knew for sure. “They want me to acquire some technology from a rebel sector. It can get around Alliance shields, apparently, and the Ministry wants to understand how it works.”
“And that’s it?” Isla’s eyes narrowed. “It feels like a trap, Jess. You go get this technology — assuming you can buy or steal it without getting yourself caught or killed — and then you hand it over to them. What’s to stop them from arresting you when they can get their hands on you? Or alerting the owners of this tech that you’re on your way, and having the aliens arrest you instead? Damn it, Jess, I thought you were smarter than this.”
“You don’t understand how these things work,” Jess said. “They’ll keep their word. If I give them the tech, they’ll let us go. I believe them.”
“Why?” Isla shoved to her feet to pace. “Why would you believe them? They’ve already betrayed us, Jess. They let Witz and all of his people go. They stranded Heidi on Caihiri and sold her to slavers, just to ambush us. What makes you think they’d honor a deal with you?”
“Because I have to believe the Ministry didn’t know about that.” Jess took a deep breath, wishing her head felt clearer. She needed to explain everything better. “They couldn’t have, Isla. Rogue Fleet officers I can believe. But the Ministry — we’re supposed to be above that. We uphold the highest principles in the Alliance. If the Ministry knew about what Witz was doing, and how they treated Heidi... Everything I’ve ever done in my life is a lie. It’s all for nothing. I can’t — that can’t be it, Isla. It just can’t.”
Jess blamed it on exhaustion when her voice broke and her vision blurred with tears. It couldn’t be grief, because there was nothing to grieve. The Ministry wasn’t involved in dirty business within the Alliance; they used dirty tricks to further the goals of the Alliance, to make the universe safer and protect the innocent. There had to be a difference.
Isla scrubbed her hands over her face, then leaned over to give Jess a hug. “Damn it. You know there’s a chance they’re just running the same tricks on you that you used to run against enemies of the Alliance. It sucks. I know it does. And I felt the same way when I had to come to terms with what Witz did. You’re going to have to face reality, girl.”
“I need to know for sure,” Jess said. She cleared her throat, but leaned against Isla just a bit. “I’ll take the risks, Isla. I won’t endanger the crew. I just need to find a ship and go off to get the technology, and hopefully at the end of it I can come back and tell you we’re all home free. I don’t want anyone else to take the risk. It’s mine to take. I just need to get everything in order here, then I’ll go.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” a gruff voice said, and Jess’s heart sank.
Vaant. How much had he heard? She took a deep breath, prepared to face the Xaravian captain, but she froze when she saw the shadow behind Vaant — Trazzak.
Trazzak
Trazzak stood back as Vaant walked into the sick bay; he didn’t trust himself to stay angry enough at Jes
salyn, not when she looked so helpless and sad. Isla didn’t look pleased to see her mate, her eyes narrowed in a warning.
Vaant either didn’t see it or didn’t care. “Are you working for the Alliance?”
“No,” Jessalyn said, and she sounded too tired to lie. “They asked me to do one more mission. I haven’t committed.”
“What kind of mission?” That time it was Isla who asked, her tone gentler and less demanding. She held Jessalyn’s hand. “And why did they ask you?”
“They want me to steal some technology off a planet in a rebel-held sector.” Jess gestured in Trazzak’s direction. “He’s got all the schematics and research on it. They offered to pardon all of us if I do this.”
And that was that. Jessalyn collapsed back against the pillow and exhaled, as if a burden lifted off her chest.
Unfortunately, that left all the scrutiny on Trazzak. Vaant glared at him. “What the hell is she talking about? Were you part of this?”
“I recognized something in Barnes,” Trazzak said, drumming his fingers on the counter he leaned against. “Some similarities in our past employment, and I asked her about it. When the poison overcame her, a few things fell out of her pockets and I did some research. The technology looks like a combination defensive and offensive system, and it should be able to defeat the Alliance shields if implemented with enough power. It’s a dangerous thing to have out in the wild, so it’s no wonder the Alliance is willing to forgive everything if we can steal the tech for them.”
“It’s not ‘we,’” Jessalyn said, her voice low. “It’s me. I’ll do it. No one else needs to take the risk. As soon as we’re out in the open, the bounty hunters will track us down and start coming after me. I’m not going to endanger anyone else. I can get to the planet and away again faster alone. That’s just how we work.”
“That’s not how we work,” Isla said, and poked Jessalyn hard enough to make the other woman jump. “You’re not going to fly solo into a hostile planet to steal from them. We’re not going to do another rescue mission so soon after the last one, you hear me? So you’re going to go with a team, if we decide to do this, and you’re not going anywhere alone until we figure out how the bounty hunters are tracking you down. I’m not going to lose you, you stubborn ass.”
Trazzak frowned; that seemed like an odd way to speak to a friend. Yet another odd Earther habit.
Vaant looked a half second away from tearing his hair out. “Maybe we should stop to consider whether this is a wise idea at all, not how many crew we’re going to sacrifice in what could be an ambush or suicide mission. Is the immunity he promised guaranteed? How long will it last? Is it worth it if it means potentially losing some of the crew?”
“It’s worth it,” Jessalyn said, and winced as she adjusted how her injured arm lay with the machines and tubes encasing it. “How many more times can the Galaxos survive a surprise attack from well-funded bounty hunters? Another Xerxh cutter like this one could tear a hole in the ship wide enough to fly through, and we might not have enough time to defend against it. Unless you’re ready to abandon the Galaxos for a different ship entirely, we’re going to continue being a target, even in rebel territory.”
Vaant’s expression darkened. “I’m not abandoning my ship.”
“Then it looks like I’ll be stealing some fancy weapons systems from a hostile planet.” Jessalyn’s eyes drifted closed; she said it with such a matter-of-fact tone that Trazzak blinked. She seemed so accustomed to the idea of a solitary mission in a bad place, against nearly impossible odds, that she could have dozed through the rest of the conversation without missing anything.
“We can take the cutter,” Trazzak said, folding his arms over his chest. “Outfit it like pirates or bounty hunters, or just traders, and approach the planet openly. That can get us close enough to figure out if we can buy or borrow the technology, or if we have to steal it. We can adjust the plan from there. But we’re going to have to move fast, before more actual bounty hunters manage to track us down.”
“We?” Vaant asked. “Are you volunteering?”
Trazzak scowled, hoping his scales didn’t change colors as Isla watched him with a strange, slightly hostile expression. “Who else would go? You and Vrix are too foolish over your mates to be trusted with this kind of mission, and I wouldn’t send Frrar anywhere unchaperoned.”
The captain growled in irritation, but Isla snorted and stroked his arm. “I wouldn’t say foolish so much as overprotective. I wouldn’t let him go by himself anyway, and he wouldn’t want to take the risks that would need to be taken. So we’re out. Trazzak, Jessalyn, maybe Maisy in case anything happens, and one of the engineers.”
“Hold on now,” Jessalyn said, pushing up on an elbow. “I can go, and —”
“I don’t think Frrar needs to go,” Trazzak said, over Jessalyn’s objections. He knew they wouldn’t listen to her, but he hoped they’d at least take into consideration what he said. “He’ll want to experiment with everything, and we can’t risk that with an untried technology or on a planet that deals in questionable tech. Frrar could get us all killed or launched into a wormhole or turned inside out.”
“I think Frrar would be a great addition to the crew,” Vaant said, silver eyes flashing, and Trazzak just knew it was payback for the “foolish” comment. “Rowan is better at repairing the Galaxos anyway. She sticks to the schematics. Good. It’s decided. You’ll all leave tomorrow.”
“But —” Jessalyn started, and Isla patted her hand.
Trazzak shook his head. “It’s too soon. She needs to rest up, and we have to get in contact with her Ministry colleagues to get a better deal. Day after tomorrow, maybe.”
Jessalyn sat up more. “It’s really not —”
Isla patted her hand and nodded toward the door. “You get some sleep. We’ll make sure everything is worked out.”
She strode off, already giving orders and shouting for Maisy to show up, and Vaant followed on her heels, shaking his head. Trazzak took a deep breath, about to follow, but caught Jessalyn watching him. She looked more tired than he’d ever seen. “This isn’t a good idea.”
“Which part?”
Jessalyn stared up at the ceiling and shook her head in a slow roll across the pillow. He might have imagined it, but it looked like a few tears rolled down her cheeks. “Any of it. All of it. This is something I’m supposed to do alone.”
“It’s okay to ask for help,” he said. “It’s okay to have a team, to work on a team.”
“Not for us,” she whispered. She slid lower on the bed and drew the sheets up higher, as if to cover her face. “That’s not how it works for us.”
“Rest,” he said. Whatever anger he’d held onto at the possibility that she brought the bounty hunters after them had faded. “We’ll figure it out.”
She didn’t respond, though her breath hitched. Trazzak knew that probably wasn’t a good sign. Instead of questioning her further, he retreated. There would be plenty of time on the mission to figure out what made those Earther women tick. He flicked the lights off and headed back to the cutter to figure out what they would need for the mission. With only two days to prepare, there was a hell of a lot to get done.
Jess
Jess didn’t feel rested even after sleeping for what felt like a full day. Maisy looked a little worried, since apparently the machines all said her blood was clear and she should have been feeling better. At least they let her hobble back to her quarters so she could pack for the mission.
She didn’t bother with a formal uniform and instead went with comfortable jeans and shirt. She packed more of her disguises, though, and a couple for Maisy as well. Just in case. Jess didn’t want to drag the doctor into the muck of her job, especially since Maisy managed to be hopeful and optimistic about everything. Seeing the underworld and murky moral choices that were made by information officers would negatively impact the younger woman, and Jess didn’t want to be responsible for changing her worldview.
Still
, there wasn’t much to do about it, since Isla apparently got her way and the four-person crew was ready to depart as soon as Jess was up and about. Frrar and Maisy practically beamed in excitement when Jess dragged herself to where they all met, in Trazzak’s quarters, to discuss the mission.
Being in Trazzak’s space, even in the living room apart from where he slept, felt strange and intrusive. Normally she would have peeked at his bookshelves and studied the mementos and artwork for clues about his personality and ways to manipulate him, but her cheeks burned at the thought and she limped to sit next to Maisy instead. Jess needed to turn that part of her brain off for a while, at least until they reached the planet and she needed to manipulate people in order to steal the technology.
The big Xaravian had set out water and some of the stinking Xaravian snacks; just the hint of red paste in the air made her stomach turn, so Jess gave the food a wide berth — even though a clawing hunger ignited in her belly at the same time. He took one look at her and tossed Maisy a heavy, soft blanket to spread around Jess, then Trazzak pulled a chair up to face all three of them. “We leave tomorrow morning, once everyone is rested and prepared.”
He didn’t look at Jess, but she knew that was meant for her. Jess sighed and tried to sit up straighter. “I’ll be fine. We can leave today if we’re concerned about time, it’s just —”
“We leave tomorrow,” Maisy said. She smiled pleasantly at Jess as she patted her arm, then turned her attention back to Trazzak. “Isla said we needed disguises or a story or something? Obviously we’re not going to fly there as ourselves, right?”
“Some of us will,” Trazzak said, and Jess frowned. The Xaravian rubbed his rough jaw, the scales rasping against his palm. “We can approach the planet as Xaravians, either bounty hunters or pirates, and at least get an introduction. This particular planet, the Dablonians and their minions, know that Xaravians are aligned with the rebellion.”
