by Gun Brooke
“She can’t walk like that,” Weiss reminded them, gesturing toward Madisyn’s shackles. “Either you have to free her feet, or I will carry her.”
The men looked indecisively at each other.
“All right. I don’t think M’Aldovar wants his new prize possession to be bruised or dented, so I’ll just carry her, all right?” Weiss scooped up Madisyn, one arm under her knees, one around her back. “Hold on to me,” she whispered.
Madisyn clung to Weiss and hid her face against her neck. Weiss was about to remind Madisyn that this was perhaps not the ideal way to convince the Onotharians they were indifferent to each other, but she didn’t have the heart to push Madisyn away.
“This way,” one of the officers said darkly. “The general wants her stored in cargo bay seven.”
Stored? What the hell… Weiss followed the officers out of the shuttle bay and into a corridor. Holding Madisyn close, she memorized the layout of the ship as they made their way to the cargo bay.
Bay seven turned out to be a sparsely lit, barren storage facility that held what looked like advanced technical equipment. A medical bed, surrounded by large pieces of technology, took up half of the space. On the other side stood a huge cylindrical container, filled up to fifty centimeters with a green substance. Weiss grew increasingly concerned when one of the Onotharian officers began to punch commands into its computer console. She carefully lowered Madisyn to the floor and supported her as she stood.
A small hatch swung open on the glass cylinder.
“Tuck her right in.”
“What the hell is that thing?” Weiss held on to Madisyn.
“Just storage. This way, the oxygenized plasma fluid will maintain her in pristine condition until the general has use for her. It will recalibrate her to extract anything that makes her a security risk.”
“Plasma fluid? Are you insane?” Weiss backed up, pulling Madisyn with her. “She’ll drown in there!”
“Drown? No, no. She’s got synthetic lungs, right? This will infuse the oxygen through her skin and into her system. It’ll be unpleasant at first, but she’ll live.”
“This was not part of the deal. You don’t know anything about this type of BNSL,” Weiss said, frantic now. “Your general may have bought her, but that doesn’t mean he can kill her. She’s sentient, you idiots.”
“She’s an android. Onotharat doesn’t legally recognize sentience in machines. Get her over here.”
The men approached them, and Weiss backed up farther.
“Please,” Madisyn said. “She’s right. I might not survive in the damn thing, and if I don’t, you will have to explain to your boss how you killed something he paid a lot for.”
This stopped them for a moment, but then the highest-ranking continued toward them. “It’s the general’s explicit order to use the plasma chamber. If there’s a mishap, I’m sure our best scientists can do something about it. General M’Aldovar moves in the highest circles among the Onotharian chairmen, politicians, and scientists. You see how he is? Well, he was actually dead for several hours. His survival is a testament to Onotharian superiority.”
“Or bad taste,” Madisyn hissed.
“An android with a sense of humor,” the Onotharian officer said, smiling mockingly. “Priceless.” He motioned with his fingers in the air. “Get her over here.”
“Never.” Weiss produced a small sidearm with a flick of her wrist. “I’m taking her back.”
“You and who else, and how?” The ensign laughed.
“I can start by firing on either of you.” Perspiration broke out on Weiss’s back. She knew they were trapped and she needed to stall for as long as she could. Kellen O’Dal was on her way, and if she could keep the men occupied until she was ready to strike—
“I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“That wouldn’t stop me. This might look insignificant, but as you know, the Guild Nation has a few tricks up their sleeves as well, from a scientific point of view.”
“So you’re going to fire on three of us with one weapon before we manage to return fire?” The ensign laughed again.
His eyes shifted, and something in them as he looked behind Weiss alerted her. She began to turn her head, holding on tight to Madisyn, when pain suddenly exploded behind her eyes. The last thing she heard was Madisyn screaming her name.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Kellen stood over the vast sensor grid table in the cartography room, her eyes locked on the small illuminated outline of the Salaceos and the Onotharian g’shedo-category vessel. The Salaceos was located just inside the asteroid belt, and the Onotharian ship was barely visible where it hid well within the belt. Only the Guild Nation’s enhanced sensors made it possible to distinguish between the midsize ship and the mineral-based rocks.
Scanning again for Madisyn Pimm’s internal beacon, as well as Kyakh’s cloaked implant, she found only a faint trace of Pimm’s signal. Concerned, Kellen double-checked the coordinates. Pimm was clearly aboard the Onotharian ship. Where was Kyakh? Had she escaped, was she dead, or had she disabled the chip? Logic suggested that Kyakh had done the latter and escaped, but for some reason, Ewan Jacelon had faith in her.
What was it about this woman that made first Rae and then her father give her the benefit of the doubt? Rae had defended her decision by pointing out that Kyakh had the cloaked chip in place. Kellen knew that, given enough time and offering enough credits, Kyakh could possibly disable it, or find someone who could. She had disabled M’Ekar’s chip once, after all. If she was able to locate the damn thing, it wouldn’t take her long to destroy it.
So, if Rae’s and Ewan’s hunches were correct and if Kyakh was still there, which ship would she be on? Kellen figured Kyakh would probably find a way to join her fellow undercover agent. Nobody had ever questioned Kyakh’s sense of loyalty. The survivors from her ship that went down in the Disi-Disi forest on Corma had all testified to her qualities as a captain. She had never left a crewmember behind, and she treated everybody with fairness, though she terrified most of them.
Kellen rapped her fingertips against the grid table. She was beginning to form a plan, and she needed to run it by her team. Pimm could be aboard the Onotharian ship for several reasons, but the fact that she had not responded to the subspace signal they’d sent to her internal sensor concerned her. So far, Pimm had stayed in touch regularly and always responded to hails. The possibility that Pimm might be disabled or fatally damaged chilled Kellen. Many people regarded sentient androids as nothing more than a political ploy, but in her mind, a life was a life, regardless of the origin.
“We’re ready, Kellen,” Owena said from the door leading to the bridge. “Leanne reported reaching our position a minute ago and our cloak is firmly in place. Shields are at a hundred percent and all systems are at peak performance.”
“Good.” Kellen pointed at the grid table. “This is the Onotharian ship. We need to move in closer so we can surprise them. I want the assault craft ready to launch and the cloaking-capable shuttle to spearhead the operation.”
“The marines are ready, as are the fighter pilots.”
“Thank you. We need to locate Kyakh. Her internal chip isn’t registering, which leads me to think she might have disabled it.”
“Ah, she could be long gone if that’s the case.”
“I don’t know why I feel so sure she isn’t. Perhaps Ewan’s and Rae’s view of her has rubbed off on me.”
“I thought Rae hated her for what she did to Ayahliss and Dahlia?” Owena followed Kellen’s fingers as she traced a trajectory on the grid table.
“She did, at first. But even she reluctantly admired Kyakh. Rae can appreciate proficiency in anyone, even an enemy.”
“Guess that’s hereditary. Dahlia tended to and protected Ambassador M’Ekar, whom she loathed, in the Disi-Disi jungle and ended up saving his life.”
“Thus sending him back to ‘that mosquito-infested hell of a planet,’ to quote M’Ekar.” Owena pursed her lips. “
So justice was served, and as far as I know, he’s still there.”
“She saw something in him there, when circumstances changed,” Kellen maintained. “Something more humane that turned him into a person, not merely a force out to hurt her or someone in her family. I think that’s the same reason she convinced Rae that Kyakh was more than a ruthless mercenary.”
“And that’s why you think Kyakh has suddenly become loyal to the SC?” Owena looked doubtful.
“Or to Madisyn Pimm.” Kellen pulled on the harness that came with the Ruby Red suit and attached her rods to her left hip. She double-checked her sidearm before attaching it to her right hip. “Either way, we need to consider the possibility that either Pimm or Kyakh or both is on M’Aldovar’s ship.”
“Assuming it is him and that he is aboard this ship,” Owena said kindly.
“He is. I can sense it.”
Owena didn’t comment on Kellen’s uncharacteristic statement. Normally not prone to relying on what humans called a sixth sense, Kellen couldn’t explain why she was certain Trax M’Aldovar was aboard. And soon he would be hers. Hers to put in a cage…or to end his life, again.
“Let’s go,” Kellen said, grabbing a handheld computer. She downloaded the information from the table to it and snapped it onto her belt. “We have a score to settle.”
*
“So you care for that abomination.”
Weiss jerked at the raspy, harsh voice. Something wheezed, and the piercing light on the other side of her closed eyelids was painful enough for her to hesitate to open them.
“Admittedly, she is rather attractive, but lowering yourself to copulating with a machine is nothing short of a disgrace. If we were on Onotharat, I’d have you arrested.”
“Who’s there?” Weiss tried to sit up, but winced at the pain in her head and the back of her neck. She blinked at the light, trying to focus on the outline of a man. Her head hurt with each resurfacing memory as she stared at Trax M’Aldovar where he sat strapped into his hover chair. “Where is Madisyn?”
“The android is kept where she is rendered harmless. She’s quite safe.”
“Oh, Gods, you’ve put her in that damn container. That cylinder! She’ll drown!” Aghast, Weiss disregarded her own physical comfort and sat up. Someone had put her on a cot in what looked like a holding cell. Blinking diodes outlined the opening and M’Aldovar sat in his chair on the other side. Weiss hesitantly pushed her hand through the opening, but wasn’t surprised when a shock traveled up her arm, followed her neck, and hurt her earlobe. A damn force field. This technology, under development mainly on Guild Nation, was in its infant stages as far as Weiss knew. The Onotharians seemed to have figured it out, or obtained it—likely stolen it—from someone.
“Very brave of you, hiding behind a tech solution like that,” she taunted M’Aldovar. “You’re afraid of Madisyn, so you stick her in a cylinder filled with goo. You’re afraid of me, so you erect a force field between us. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were afraid of strong women, period.”
“Shut up! If you value your life, don’t speak another word,” M’Aldovar croaked, and began to cough. “I’ll dismantle that mockery of a woman before I ever let the two of you see each other. I can tell you’re fond of her, and it’s downright sick. Unnatural.”
“She’s more real than you ever were or ever will be,” Weiss said slowly, backing up to sit down on the cot. “She’s kind and sweet, and she cares about people and ideals. You’re nothing but a sociopath with political power and connections. You’ve been defeated before, and you will be again.”
“By whom?” M’Aldovar sneered.
“By—”
Emergency klaxons began to blare and the light switched to a red hue. Weiss heard voices shout in Onotharian over the comm system.
“What the hell…?” M’Aldovar pivoted his chair and drove up to the two men guarding the door. “Find out.”
“Yes, General.” The men grabbed their communicators and followed orders.
“As I said,” Weiss stated calmly, “this is just the beginning—of the end.”
“You!” Twirling with his chair, M’Aldovar glared at her, his stare as acidic as if it truly could burn her skin. “You don’t speak.”
“Try to stop me.” Weiss was taking a calculated risk that the force field could withstand plasma-pulse weapons and such. “Why don’t you wheel that chair of yours in here and stop me. Must be really annoying, not to mention frustrating, to have a mere woman talk back like this. A woman has defeated you before, so the rumors have it. Didn’t a woman put you in that chair? Robbed you of your future, in a sense?”
“A woman made the mistake of thinking she killed me,” M’Aldovar hissed. “She left me for dead, but I fooled her. I fooled them all. I rose in the ranks faster than anyone my age and outsmarted any of the others who had intact bodies. What use is a perfect body if you don’t have the brains to go with it?”
“True, true,” Weiss said, making sure she sounded sickly sweet. “And what does it matter that you have to rely on the assistance of others for every single thing in life? That’s no big deal, is it?” Weiss would’ve loathed mocking any other person’s misfortune, or their pain or injuries. This man, however, had taken Madisyn and tucked her in a damn glass tube. As if she hadn’t suffered enough at the hands of callous, greedy, power-hungry individuals.
A whistling sound, all too familiar, drowned out the roar Weiss’s words forced out of M’Aldovar. An explosion rocked the ship, nearly tossing Weiss onto the floor. M’Aldovar’s chair rolled forward despite his attempts to stop it with voice commands, and its front hit the force field. A cascade of sparks showered him and he cursed out loud. Clearly, he had some sensation left in his skin, Weiss thought maliciously. Another explosion sent the ship hurtling, and the inertial dampeners went offline momentarily. Weiss didn’t wait. She kicked the wall and let the weightlessness carry her toward the opening. Hoping M’Aldovar had done serious damage to the field, she made sure her boots would take the brunt of the force.
The air around her crackled as she floated through the opening, and when she was clear of it, the inertial dampeners came online and she landed with a thud on her bottom on the floor. M’Aldovar’s chair had risen a few centimeters off the floor level and now bounced down as well.
Glancing over by the door, Weiss saw that the guards were still carrying out their orders of finding out what was going on. It wasn’t hard to guess. Kellen O’Dal and her unit had arrived. For the first time since she’d disabled the chip in her abdomen, Weiss cursed herself for doing so. Kellen couldn’t know that she was aboard this ship. Madisyn! Perhaps the protector had scanned for Madisyn’s internal sensor and found her?
Weiss headed for the door, not sure which deck she was on. Outside, she saw markings in the darkened corridor, but they were Onotharian and she understood only enough of the language to curse at someone.
Madisyn was in one of the cargo bays on the lower decks, and that’s what mattered. Weiss yanked open one door after another, trying to find a staircase or a lift. If Kellen intended to blow this ship into space dust, Weiss needed to find Madisyn, get her out of the cylinder, and somehow make contact. Weiss moaned as her headache escalated almost beyond control when she began to run toward the end of the corridor. The ship rocked from more explosions, and the inertial dampeners went offline again, causing her to slam into the bulkhead. She didn’t care about the pain. Clawing her way along the wall, Weiss only cared about finding Madisyn, and she was running out of time.
Chapter Twenty-eight
“So good to see you, Reena.” Ayahliss looked hungrily at the computer screen on the wall of her small unit. Reena in fact looked fatigued, with dark circles beneath her eyes. She revealed a new vulnerability, something Ayahliss wondered if she normally let anyone see.
“Sweet soul, I miss you.” Reena pushed her thick hair out of her face. “I know you haven’t been gone long, but the fact that you are on yet another dangerous miss
ion…”
“I will be very careful.” Ayahliss wanted to touch Reena’s pale cheeks on the screen and tightened her fists under the desk. “Kellen’s plan is sound.”
“I know you will, and I know it is.” Looking frustrated, Reena rested her head in her hand, slumping sideways. “Stars and skies, I’m not helping at all, am I? I’m sorry.”
Ayahliss was ready to jump through the screen and hold Reena close. She had never felt protective in her life until she met Armeo, and now her urge extended past the Jacelons and Kellen to Reena. This feeling held so many dimensions and was so new; she could only let it unravel on its own since she had no idea how else to handle it. She did, however, have to prevent this weary sense of guilt written across Reena’s beautiful face.
“You don’t have to be sorry, Reena,” Ayahliss said, now actually touching the base of the screen. “This is exactly what I need to hear. Don’t you see?”
“What?”
“I need to know that you are with me in your heart.” Reena sat up and leaned closer to the screen. “This will be dangerous, and it hurts me to worry you, but I’ve never had such a strong motivation to return in one piece. I used to think it was important to return so I could fight another day. This is different.”
“Tell me how, Ayahliss.” Reena cleared her voice.
“I will go into battle focusing on returning in one piece.” Ayahliss lowered her eyes for a moment, her stomach fluttering madly. “To you.”
“Ayahliss.” Reena’s face softened and her eyes suddenly glowed with such emotion they calmed the tremors in Ayahliss’s belly. “Nothing, nothing is more important to me than your safe return. You have to come back.”
“When you return to the Circinus, I wish you’d consider staying with me in my quarters. I don’t want to miss another moment with you.”
Ayahliss was certain she must’ve misunderstood. “Stay with you? Like moving in?” Her throat constricted.
