Pirate's Fortune

by Gun Brooke

  “What?”

  “I was raised on a generational ship. We were heading toward SC space when pirates attacked. The ship was destroyed and a few of us captured. I was separated from my mother.” Breathing shallowly, Weiss fought the pain beneath her ribs. “I looked for her for more than ten years.”

  “Why did you stop? Did you find her?” A faint hope shone in Madisyn’s eyes.

  “No. The pirates, who kept me, finally told me. She died along with everybody else among the bridge crew. I don’t know why I was so shocked at the time. Guess hope truly lingers.” Weiss blinked repeatedly. “I don’t compare this to your trauma. You suffered so much more and I can understand your hatred.”

  “At least I had my parents well into adulthood.”

  “And afterward, you were alone.” Weiss hurt even more for the lonely, deprived Madisyn than for her own loss, which amazed her. She had focused on her own pain, her own perpetual anger and entitlement, for so long. Now this young woman, her heart-wrenching fate, tore at Weiss’s armor.

  “You know, one of the worst things about losing my parents is that nobody touches me. No hugs, no embraces, even though they never dared touch me in public. Nothing. As for sex—forget it.” Madisyn laughed again, and the sound was strangely sorrowful.

  Weiss couldn’t remember when someone had last hugged her. The only physical contact she’d had in ages was during hand-to-hand combat. Once she’d sought pleasure in any space port without thinking twice about it, but that was a long time ago.

  “Would you?” Madisyn startled Weiss by rising on her knees.

  “Would I what?”

  “Hug me? I mean, if I asked you as a friend, would you give me a hug?” Madisyn’s eyes now burned a bright blue.

  “Ah. Sure.” Though this wasn’t a good idea, Weiss shifted and sat down next to Madisyn. She placed her hands on Madisyn’s shoulders with dread in her heart and no air in her lungs. To her surprise, Madisyn softly moved into her touch, curling up next to her. Weiss wrapped her arms around Madisyn’s shivering body, and suddenly it wasn’t hard at all. It felt strangely natural to embrace her, even rock her a little.

  *

  Madisyn’s heart thundered. Artificial components primarily governed her synthetic physiology, but her brain still overrode them. Now, being this close to another person, and being held, threatened to overload all her senses. Weiss’s normal aura of feline grace and deadliness had turned into something entirely different. The comforting embrace had started out awkward, and Madisyn regretted it for half a second before it began to feel so damn good. She snuggled closer and Weiss held her wonderfully tight.

  “Thank you.” Madisyn knew it sounded silly, strange even, to be so grateful. She inhaled Weiss’s clean scent, tinged with something crisp and citric. Occasionally, strangers might seem attracted to her because her looks deceived them initially, but not once they pegged her as a BSNL, no matter how sentient and with legalized rights and obligations. Cynically, Madisyn had found that some men and women might even consider a brief sexual encounter, but they might as well have turned to an insentient android to scratch such an itch.

  Now Madisyn realized her life might be pure hell from that moment on. Having gone without physical contact for so long, she had learned to live without it. Weiss’s embrace brought all the memories back, though Weiss’s touch made her feel entirely different than her parents’.

  “I’m sorry.” Weiss spoke so quietly, only Madisyn’s enhanced hearing detected her words.

  “What?” Pulling back, Madisyn looked up at the angular features of Weiss’s face, her eyes a dark, glimmering green. Heavy eyelids kept Madisyn from reading their convoluted expression, but the faint tremors in Weiss’s arms worried her. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Just that…I’m not used to, uh, hugging either.” Weiss actually squirmed, looking ill at ease.

  “You can let go.” Madisyn tried to lighten the mood by winking.

  “Ah. That’s just it. Don’t think so. It feels too good.”

  “Oh, Weiss. We’re such a pair, aren’t we?” Madisyn cringed at what she’d just said. “I don’t mean we’re a pair, exactly, but—”

  “I understand what you mean.”

  “I’m afraid.” The words were out before Madisyn could stop them. She pressed her forehead against Weiss’s shoulder.

  “Why? Of what?”

  “Oh, Weiss.” Madisyn refused to meet her gaze. “I could get used to this. Proximity. Being held.”

  Weiss sat very still, her arms still locked around Madisyn. At first, Madisyn thought her needy words might go unanswered, but Weiss gently cleared her throat. “Nothing says we can’t repeat this, if required. In private.”

  “Of course.” A careful sense of joy spread through Madisyn, and she tipped her head back, letting her usual smile easily form on her lips. “What kind of rough, tough, mean-spirited pirates would we portray if we kept snuggling in public?” She gently kissed Weiss’s cheek. “Thank you.”

  Weiss nearly stole her breath by wrapping her in a fierce hug. “Don’t thank me. You’re not the only one with needs.”

  Something stirred inside Madisyn’s lower abdomen. A heavy sort of sweetness that sent warm waves down to her thighs made her whimper.

  “Madi?” Weiss cupped Madisyn’s cheek and tipped her head back.

  “Weiss…” Nearly drunk with her unexpected surge of arousal, Madisyn blinked slowly.

  “What’s wrong?” Frowning, Weiss pushed Madisyn’s hair from her face, and the tender gesture soothed the fire coursing through her veins. Weiss’s callused hands felt so good, better than anything Madisyn had ever dreamed of, and her somewhat clumsy touch was endearing. Something told her she better not relay that thought to Weiss.

  “I’m fine. I mean, I’m all right.” Madisyn stole one last lungful of Weiss’s scent and committed the feel of her warmth to memory before pulling back. “Guess it got the better of me. I mean, talking about my past.”

  “Can’t say I blame you.” Weiss fidgeted before pushing her hands deep into her pockets. “We need to get some sleep.”

  “Yes. Absolutely.” Madisyn hesitated, not sure how to say what was on her mind. “I’m glad we talked. I’m glad you know. It’s been very lonely.”

  Weiss drew a deep, not entirely steady, breath. “For stars and skies, Madisyn. Lonely doesn’t cover it, does it?”

  “Guess not.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I just wish—” Weiss dragged a hand through her hair, for once loose and not tied back in her usual austere manner.

  “Yes?”

  “I wish I wasn’t so damn inept at situations such as these.” Frustration only made Weiss seem more approachable, and Madisyn barely resisted hinting for another embrace.

  “Hey, you and me both.” Madison gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Today was hard on both of us, but you saved the Koenigin’s bridge crew.”

  “And you gave away your secret. That took more courage.” Weiss had a look of longing, something Madisyn tried to not read too much into.

  “Time to sleep.” Madisyn pulled back the blanket and crawled into bed. The thermo-blanket wrapped around her in another sort of embrace. She closed her eyes and thought of Weiss and how it felt when she held her and brushed her hair back. She called me Madi. The sudden memory of the unexpected nickname made Madisyn relax and sink farther into her pillow.

  *

  Weiss listened to Madisyn’s breathing while she tried to fall asleep herself. She had no idea what had just happened. Aloof and used to being regarded as aggressive and terrifying, she knew Madisyn had claimed a spot inside her frozen heart that had been vacant for many years. Not since she was a very young girl could Weiss remember such tenderness.

  The sense of protection that Madisyn evoked in her could prove to be dangerous to her plans. They weren’t far from the asteroid belt where she had hidden her wealth over the years. The caverns on the asteroid held enough poisonous gases and materials to warra
nt heavy-duty survival gear, which kept people away if they ventured onto the hostile surface. Consisting mostly of Dahraxian noble ores, the most sought-after metal in the known part of the galaxy, it would allow her to live in luxury for the rest of her life, once she could retrieve it and then disappear.

  A soft sigh, followed by an even softer whimper, distracted Weiss, and she frowned at the spike of tenderness that shot through her. Certain it actually did some damage inside, she imagined it nicking her heart, leaving it to slowly bleed with every beat.

  “Damn,” she whispered. Her plan was dangerous, but not very complicated. Waiting until the Salaceos was close enough, disabling the alarm system and the cloaked chip inside her, stealing a shuttle, and leaving quietly. Now it was complicated, and that complication was called Madisyn Pimm. How could she just go and leave her behind in the midst of the people she hated—and feared—the most?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kellen straddled the hover bike, donned the black helmet, and motioned for Ayahliss to sit behind her. Next to them, several SC marines did the same, carefully hidden behind the large forest located between them and Ganath, Gantharat’s capital.

  Gazing around her, Kellen made sure her unit was ready to move out. They would have to, in order to use the faint moonlight to their advantage. Martial law had been part of the Gantharians’ existence since the occupation began more than twenty-five years ago, and being caught out past curfew meant incarceration in an asteroid prison.

  Everybody had mounted their hover bikes, which the resistance had delivered to the small forest path. It had been eerie to find the twenty-some bikes abandoned in the woods, but Kellen’s scans had showed no signs of an ambush and no tinkering with the bikes.

  As she signaled for the others to start their bikes and follow her, she inhaled the familiar sweetness of the Gantharian fall air. It felt magical to be back and yet, in a strange way, also alien. She had been part of the SC military and lived on several SC worlds since she had fled her home world with Armeo. Caring for the young prince, marrying Rae, and changing not only her own life, but that of her fellow Gantharians had forever altered her existence.

  The winding forest path widened as they neared the capital. The resistance fighters had meticulously mapped the forest and regularly updated the system of their hover bikes to be able to use stealth mode. This was also an illegal feature, from an Onotharian point of view. Nobody was allowed to move undetected by scanners, but this didn’t stop the Gantharian scientists from coming up with new and improved systems to beat the tyrants.

  The forest became less dense and Kellen slowed down, the nearly soundless machine barely purring faintly under her. Ayahliss shifted in her seat and readied her double-nozzled sidearm.

  “Not much farther now,” Kellen murmured in her earpiece. “Be ready.”

  “Ready.” Ayahliss’s voice was low and emotionless.

  Kellen pressed the sensor that increased the bike’s speed as they turned a sharp corner, coming upon a low, dark building. Evenly dispersed poles created a force field around it, which shimmered faintly in the dark. Kellen forced the bike closer, taking the curve almost lying down, and Ayahliss held to her shoulder as she took aim with the weapon the SC’s finest engineers had provided.

  Four poles exploded in quick succession, sending a shower of sparks several meters up, illuminating the woods. The marines careened through the disabled force field just behind Kellen and Ayahliss. Two Onotharian guards came running around the corner, firing plasma-pulse weapons. Ayahliss raised her sidearm again.

  “No! Shoot to stun.” Kellen yanked her own weapon free from her harness as she slid the bike to a stop and stunned the closest guard. “They might be Gantharians.”

  “Traitors,” Ayahliss spat, but used her smaller sidearm to stun the other guard, who had frozen at the sight of the crowd.

  “Blast the doors open. We need to get to the weapons and sensor-grid projectors.”

  “On it.” Ayahliss jumped off the bike and ran toward the doors, firing repeatedly with her double-barreled blaster.

  “We have company, Protector.” The closest marine showed her his scanner readings. “At least fifty of them.”

  “And they should be ours, but let’s make sure.” Kellen pulled her plasma-pulse rifle from her back. Switching on the monitor on top of it, she adjusted it to night vision. “Send ten marines into the building with Ayahliss. I’ll meet the newcomers with a few of your troops.” Kellen didn’t like parting with Ayahliss but knew she was trained to handle herself better than any of the marines. “Keep comm channels open.”

  “Affirmative, Protector.”

  Kellen cast one last glance at the now-open structure and saw marines disappear with Ayahliss into the building. Checking her monitor again, she spotted the approaching crowd moving fast along two different paths. Their speed indicated they were resistance fighters, familiar with the paths of the deep forest.

  She ran between the trees, six marines behind her, and soon she could make out shadows and hear the approaching hover bikes. She motioned to the marines to stay hidden and stepped into the path, forcing the lead bike to come to a rapid halt. The rider forced the bike to rise on its rear pad, much like a spooked maesha.

  “What the hell…?” The rider jumped off the bike and reached for a weapon. “Identify yourself.”

  “Roshan.” Relief flooded Kellen when she recognized her old comrade-in-arms. This woman had once brought Kellen’s father home after Onotharian forces had killed him. Roshan O’Landha, resistance leader, had fought alongside her father, and later they’d belonged to the same resistance cell. Roshan had found out Kellen was the last protector of the realm only recently, when Kellen and Rae had rescued several thousand freedom fighters.

  “Kellen!” Roshan hit a sensor, placing the hover bike on standby. “Oh, Gods, I can’t believe it.”

  “I see you brought backup.” Kellen nodded at the thirty-some bikes behind Roshan. “Andreia?”

  “Right here.” An agile woman approached after lowering her bike to the ground and stepping off. “It’s good to see you, Protector.”

  Kellen stepped closer, making sure nobody else was within earshot. “Likewise, Boyoda.” Very few people knew that Andreia M’Aldovar, Onotharian by birth and Gantharian by heart, was the mythical resistance leader with the call sign Boyoda. When Kellen and Rae had evacuated the resistance fighters to Revos Prime, Andreia had assumed another identity, to keep her true one hidden. After living a double existence as resistance leader and Onotharian poster child for the occupation, she had a price on her head from both camps. “I wasn’t aware that you had arrived from Revos Prime already.”

  “We knew the Onotharians would be waiting, so we leaked false information to everybody. We’ve actually been back fifteen days, enough to get organized and coordinate with headquarters.” Roshan glanced behind Kellen. “I see from the lights over there that you’ve managed to get into the structure.”

  “I brought some new technology. We managed to take out the sensors with two shots,” Kellen explained. “Hitch a ride back there? The sooner we get out of here, the better.”

  “Sure.” They mounted the bike and hurried back after Kellen gave a signal to the marines to return to their vehicles as well.

  Ayahliss came toward them, her eyes glimmering. “Protector, we have found—Paladin!” She used Roshan’s call sign, smiling broadly. “O’Daybo,” she greeted Andreia, her smile fading a little. It had hit Ayahliss hard to learn that their most revered resistance leader was an Onotharian.

  “Ayahliss.” Roshan embraced the flustered young woman. “Good to see you.”

  “And you.” The affectionate greeting seemed to take Ayahliss aback. “Protector, we have disabled most of the surveillance grid for the inner city of Ganath. In the core of the city, the Onotharians are virtually blind and deaf. We’ve also located the main weapons storage within the facility.”

  “Excellent. Better than we thought. It’s time to mov
e the interim government inside the main structures and create a stronghold. We also need to focus a big part of our forces on the transmitting networks, to get the message out.” Kellen looked around. “We’re going to start something tonight that we’ve worked a long time to achieve. As we speak, diplomats and officers of the court are moving in, so we need to work fast.”

  “I can hardly believe it,” Andreia said softly, her voice trembling. “It’s been so long.”

  Roshan placed an arm around her shoulders. “It certainly has.”

  “Protector? Ma’am? We’ve removed the weaponry and loaded it on the hover carts.” The marine captain pointed toward four carts behind the hover bikes closest to the door opening.

  “Excellent, now we just have—” A sharp signal interrupted Kellen and she yanked her communicator from her shoulder. Concerned, she realized the incoming message was from the diplomatic security detail. “Kellen O’Dal here. Go ahead.”

  “Protector. We’re taking heavy fire and have been cut off from the main part of the detail.” A young marine was obviously running, gasping as he spoke.

  “The diplomats?” Kellen forced down the icy sensation burning her throat.

  “They’re with us. We’re trying to keep them safe while our unit is engaging the enemy.”

  “Ping your coordinates with the scramble-beacon. We’re not far away.”

  The marine transmitted his coordinates, and Roshan and Andreia brought up a digital map of the city.

  “We have your location, Corporal. Keep your head down and the diplomats safe until we get there.” Pray he does. Kellen shoved the weapons into her harness and jumped onto her hover bike. Turning her head, she looked into the dark blue fire of Ayahliss’s eyes.

  “Reena? Dahlia?” Ayahliss spoke without inflection.

  “Under attack. Let’s go.” Kellen pulled the bike into a steep climb, grateful for the powerful engine. As her SC unit moved out, followed by the resistance fighters, she kept up an inner mantra: Be safe. Please, be safe.