Dragon's Echo

by Natalie Grey

  Now she was reaping what she’d sown.

  She had the urge to go talk to Cade about it, and then thought he might just be annoyed. Tera, too. They’d tell her she knew what she was getting into and they’d be angry at her for jerking Nyx around.

  Mala hung her head and squeezed her eyes shut. When she picked her head up, she wiped at her eyes determinedly and grabbed the battered old metal mug her grandmother had brought with her to Dobrevi when she emigrated decades ago.

  It was one of the only things Mala had brought with her to Seneca, though when she lived there she had kept it carefully hidden. When she had given up her life there—with relief—she had given away all the fashionable clothes, the nail polish, the expensive vases and paintings she decorated her house with. She’d gone back to being a kid from a rural little planet where nothing much happened and her grandmother still talked about the safe zones and subsistence farms from the terraforming years.

  Her grandmother, an eminently practical woman, had also been of the opinion that there was not much a cup of a tea and a good cry couldn’t solve. Mala decided to take that advice now.

  After that, she’d just whack things with a hammer in the engine room until she felt better. The air filtration system was beginning to thump and clank a lot. It wasn’t dangerous, but it was a time-consuming fix that involved whacking a lot of things with hammers, and until today, she hadn’t felt any particular desire to do that.

  Now she really, really did.

  She was just taking the turn off to the kitchen when she heard Aryn’s voice, rising furiously:

  “And you haven’t told her?”

  “Keep it down.” Cade sounded frustrated. “No, we haven’t told her. We all decided—”

  “You all?” Aryn only sounded more furious. “All three of you decided that she shouldn’t know what’s going on? Tera? Lesedi?”

  There was a pause, and Mala thought she caught the faint sound of Lesedi’s voice, though no words managed to get past the racket of the filtration system. Frowning, Mala walked closer softly, ducking under one of the beams.

  Whatever Lesedi said, it wasn’t good enough for Aryn.

  “No,” she said. “That’s horrible. Didn’t you hear her earlier today? She hasn’t heard from Nyx in days. Nyx probably hasn’t told her what’s going on—”

  “For good reason!” Cade’s voice rose and broke off sharply. “Look, I get that you want her to know the truth because it’s some mythical perfect thing to do, but you don’t get what sort of things Dragons do.”

  “Oh, I don’t?” Aryn had gone cold.

  “Aryn—”

  “No, you listen to me, all three of you listen to me. Mala knows what Nyx does for a living, it’s not like that’s a secret. Pretending everything is normal is just going to give her a complex. Nyx isn’t dead, she isn’t even hurt.”

  “And she hasn’t told Mala,” Cade argued. “What does that tell you?”

  “That she’s just like you!” Aryn shot back. “That she wants to stand on her own if it kills her and never rely on anyone. At least with Tera and Talon, they’re both that way, but Mala and Nyx?”

  Abruptly, Mala didn’t want to hear any more of this. She turned sharply and ran directly into the beam. The sound, and her resulting oath, brought Cade to the door of the planning room. Mala, rubbing her forehead, saw him hovering there.

  “So something’s happened.”

  He sighed. “Mala, we were just trying to—”

  “Keep me in the dark? Yeah, I know. And now everyone else knows what’s going on with her before I do.” To her horror, tears of embarrassment pricked at her eyes. She wanted to shut up, but she couldn’t stop herself from adding, “Because apparently she’d rather lean on any of you than on me.”

  “Excuse me.” Lesedi pushed past Cade, a tiny figure in her business suit, and took Mala by the hand to guide her firmly toward the kitchen. “Come with me and we’ll get you a nice cup of tea.”

  “I don’t want tea.”

  “Good Lord, child, I know your grandmother taught you better than that.” Lesedi marched her to the table, sat her down, and took the mug into the kitchen, where she busied herself with heating water and measuring out tea leaves.

  She clattered around without saying a word and by the time the water was heated and the tea had steeped, most of the adrenaline rush had worked its way out of Mala’s system—with a generous helping of tears.

  “Here.” Lesedi put the mug of tea in Mala’s hands and sat down across the table from her. “Drink. Good. Now, stop being an idiot about this.”

  Mala, halfway through a sip of tea, choked and looked over at Lesedi, wide-eyed.

  “You heard me,” Lesedi said. She was absolute uncompromising. “You’ve known Nyx since you were yea high on a grasshopper, missy, so you knew exactly what you were getting into.”

  “I know that Dragons—”

  “Not Dragons.” Lesedi moved her hand as though she were considering rapping Mala across the knuckles, and Mala drew her hand away just in case. “Nyx,” the information broker clarified. “Dragon commanders all have the same flaw: they want to believe they can control the whole world if they can just come at it hard enough. You’ve known Nyx all your life, don’t tell me you haven’t learned that about her.”

  Mala took a sip of tea. She had no idea what to say to this.

  “Nyx didn’t tell any of the others about what happened,” Lesedi said. “They found out from Talon, and even he didn’t say much. I only know because she wanted me to look into it.”

  “What did happen?”

  Lesedi hesitated. “Someone purporting to be in Ghost’s organization set off an explosion at the Dragon docks on Seneca. There’s more to it, but it was an open challenge to Nyx. Now this same person—we’re fairly sure—interrupted her current mission and blew up a civilian ship to get under her skin.”

  Mala put the cup of tea down. She could not imagine how Nyx must feel right now. “How many—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Lesedi said. “You say you know Nyx so well, but can’t you see that the reason she didn’t tell you is that she’s ashamed?”

  “Why?”

  “Oh, for—stop and think for a moment.” Lesedi leaned in. “Whoever is doing this is doing it because she took down Ghost, and they are doing so in a way that targets innocent bystanders. In her opinion, she should have stopped all of this before it began. She’s trying to fix it. Until then, anything she tells you about what’s going on is just going to feel like she’s telling you about abject failure on her part. Now do you see?”

  Mala swallowed and looked down at her tea.

  “This is all new for the two of you,” Lesedi said gently. “In time, you’ll learn to rely on one another.”

  “Or not.” The words came out before Mala could stop herself. She picked at the rim of her mug.

  “Or not,” Lesedi agreed. When Mala looked up, Lesedi arched one eyebrow. “Did you think I would give you platitudes, my dear? What you’re doing isn’t easy. No relationship is. There’s nothing I can say that will make the two of you open up with one another … and maybe be a little more forgiving.”

  Mala nodded, shamed.

  Lesedi sighed. “I don’t mean to be hard on you, my darling. The truth is, I’m worried for your girl. I don’t know who’s doing this or why, but I know they want to make Nyx hurt—and they’re getting under her skin. Ghost … isn’t as dead as I’d like.”

  “She is dead,” Mala whispered. “There wasn’t anything left of that station when they were done. I saw it.”

  “I don’t doubt you,” Lesedi said. “Nyx said the same. But there’s no jostling for position, there’s no sudden influx of unsavory people who might have come from her organization. The man who’s stalking Nyx is on someone’s leash, and if it weren’t for the fact that Team 9 swears Ghost is dead … I would swear that someone is Ghost.”

  Mala swallowed. “That isn’t possible. She was there. She died.”


  Lesedi only shook her head. “So you say, and I don’t think either of you are lying to me. But when all of the evidence tells me something else … well, let us simply say I have been so successful in my chosen profession because I do something very few people do.”

  “What’s that?” Mala frowned at her.

  Lesedi stood. She trailed her fingers along the table for a moment as she looked down at Mala. “I believe my eyes,” she said finally. “I don’t waste time telling myself that something can’t be true when it obviously is. Right now, Mala, that means I believe that somehow, against all odds, Ghost is alive—and she’s trying to make Nyx pay for stopping her before.”

  18

  “—Not a fucking clue.” Talon’s voice was full of frustration. “That station should have been on lockdown. I paid for it.” He sighed. “But it’s not fair to expect a station administrator to go up against a Dragon and a … whatever the hell Tristan is. They both have training and resources no one could anticipate.”

  Nyx settled her chin down on her crossed arms and considered. “Estabrook—”

  “Rudolph. Do not let him have a single shred of dignity.”

  “Rudolph, then. Rudolph only teamed up with Tristan in order to see you die. He thought it would make more of an impact on you to be killed by me rather than however he’d been planning to do that. But my guess is that he knows you’re still alive and he’s not going to keep working with Tristan. Tristan failed him. The question is, where will he go now?”

  “He could blend in on any of the mining colonies almost indefinitely. It’s not like they have people clamoring to take jobs there, and he could fake a background check even if they bothered to run one.”

  “I’d say that doesn’t serve his goal, but I don’t know how going to Crius or Yee would.” Nyx scratched at her scalp. She hadn’t been able to sleep properly for two days. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the body hitting the window of the landing bay. She sighed. “We split up. We head for Crius, you head for the mining colonies.”

  “Why do you get Crius?”

  “Because I have Loki—though right about now, I’d be perfectly happy to give him back.”

  “Talk to him,” Talon advised.

  “I will. But he’s sulking.”

  “Like you’ve never done anything embarrassing? Or made your team leader furious? I know that second one is a lie. I was your team leader.”

  Nyx laughed. “Right. Well, anyway, we’ll follow all the leads we can. Whoever finds a trace of him, they’ll call the other one in. Deal?”

  “Deal. See you soon. Should we redock before—”

  “Nah. We don’t have time to draw this out.” She wanted to spend some time on the Ariane more than anything, but she knew better than to give herself that opportunity.

  “Roger that. See you soon.”

  Nyx stared at her desk for a moment, then came to a decision. She checked the duty roster before calling up to the cockpit. She hadn’t had time yet to have an innate idea of who would be there.

  “Choop.”

  “Captain—Nyx, sorry.”

  “Could you call everyone to the war room, please? Set a course for Crius and then join us.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Dammit.”

  Nyx cut the call with a small smile. Choop had come up through the Navy and his manners showed it. It didn’t bother her as much with him as with the others for some reason, perhaps because he didn’t make a big deal of it—and his consternation was amusing every time he caught himself using a title.

  Most of the crew was in the war room by the time she got there. Wraith, Loki, and Foxtail slid in a few seconds after her, coated in sweat from a training session. Halo and Doc both reeked of engine grease and some of the others were still carrying bowls of food.

  Nyx waited until Choop came into the room, then she nodded around at all of them. “All right.” She leaned on the table. “Here’s the deal. It seems fairly certain that despite a station lockdown, Estabrook got off that station somehow.”

  “R,” Halo muttered. “How can no one know his name? I looked at Grunt’s report, it says even he didn’t know.”

  There was a round of agreement.

  “Maybe he was just trying to save some time filling out forms,” Nyx suggested. “I wouldn’t blame him for that. Enabling a psychotic dictator, though, yes. So, in that vein—we’re splitting off from the Ariane for now and heading for Crius and Yee to see if we can track him down there. Team 9 will be checking out the mining colonies.”

  She looked around herself. Wraith’s arms were crossed and Centurion was frowning. Loki still wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  “I’m looking for ideas,” Nyx said. “Any ideas. As you know, my instincts haven’t been fantastic on this mission and before we set out, I want to have a good plan of action. Two whole planets is a lot of area to cover.” She looked around and made a choice. “Loki. Any thoughts on Crius?”

  Loki swallowed slightly. After a moment, he swallowed and shook his head.

  Work with me, man. Nyx tried not to sigh. She looked around at the others. “Come on. Any ideas are welcome.”

  Wraith tapped her fingers on her elbow and said, finally, “I think we should be going after Tristan Mandekar.”

  Nyx felt her jaw tighten. She took a breath.

  Wraith waited until Nyx nodded at her before she kept going. “You said your instincts may not be leading you right. That’s debatable, but from what I see, Tristan’s a bigger threat to us right now than Estabrook.”

  “I’ll think about that,” Nyx said. Her tone was final and she looked around at the others. “Come on, give me your ideas. None of us want to be watching him fly away because we didn’t take the time to do this now.”

  “Crius does have some organized crime,” Doc suggested. “One of the gangs tried to recruit me a while back. This was around the time I was joining the Dragons.”

  Nyx looked at her with interest. If Doc was well-known enough before becoming a Dragon, that she had been headhunted by criminal syndicates … that was worth keeping in mind when planning missions.

  “Anyone we should approach in particular?”

  “I’ll ask around.” Doc’s face was smooth.

  Yes, that was definitely going to be a good asset.

  Now that Doc had spoken up, the others seemed willing to as well. Maple suggested one of the smaller towns on Crius might be a good bet—sleepy, not highly traveled, but home to Crius’s second biggest spaceport. This spurred Loki to mention the name of the town with the Alliance base. He still wouldn’t look Nyx in the eye, but he was at least contributing.

  “We could see if we could get their satellite data on ships that have landed,” Foxtail suggested.

  “That could help us backtrack if he switched ships between Victus and Crius,” Choop agreed. “We still don’t know how he left.”

  Nyx noted it down, nodding to both of them.

  “While we’re there, we should at least check for signs of Tristan as well.” Wraith kept her voice even, but there was tension there. “Foxtail’s report mentioned some known holdings of Ghosts out in this sector.”

  Nyx kept herself from reacting too obviously. No frown, she told herself. She’d told Wraith that she wanted her to speak up, and the woman was doing so.

  “I have multiple sources looking into his history,” she said as evenly as she could. “Right now, we’re on the clock to take down those Dragons.”

  “And there’s someone on each one of them, isn’t there?” Wraith wasn’t backing down. “You were part of Team 9, you know how capable they are. They don’t need us.”

  Everyone else had fallen silent, looking between Nyx and Wraith.

  “It’s Talon’s mission,” Wraith pressed. “It’s him they’re going for. And no one here faults you for your loyalty to him.”

  The words were like a slap. Nyx jerked before she could stop herself.

  “If it were Mallory, I’d want to do the same.” Wraith tried to soften it. �
��And if we didn’t have someone else to contend with, I wouldn’t say a damned thing about this. But we do. We’ve got some guy with a grudge stalking the whole crew and we don’t know who he is or who he’s serving. He’s gotten onto the Dragon docks. He’s killed civilians. That’s a hell of an unknown to leave hanging while we help Talon out.”

  Nyx looked down at the papers on the table, pressing her lips together to try to keep her face clear.

  “For what it’s worth,” Centurion said finally, “I agree with Wraith.”

  There wasn’t even the sound of breathing anymore; everyone was frozen, hardly letting their breath out. When the XO and the captain were on opposite sides, the chief’s opinion carried a good bit of weight … but the XO and the chief still didn’t outweigh the captain at the end of the day, and no one knew what might happen now.

  Nyx remembered her words to Tersi: this isn’t about him, she’d said, furious at Loki for turning the mission into a showpiece for his feelings.

  Well, it wasn’t about her, either. She lifted her chin and met his eyes. “Explain.” She kept her voice neutral, light. Maybe they had a point. Her instincts hadn’t been leading her well so far. If Centurion and Wraith thought she should go after Tristan rather than helping Talon, well….

  She should at least hear them out.

  “It’s everything she said.” Centurion nodded at Wraith. “If we didn’t have anyone else to be tracking right now, this would make sense. Take the Dragons out quick. I get it. But Talon could call in any of the other teams if he needs help, and we have someone else coming after us—someone who’s capable of doing some real damage. Turning our backs seems unwise.”

  How the hell was she going to tell Talon that she was backing out of this? Nyx closed her eyes for a moment.

  It’s not about you, she told herself. She had a team now, full of people who would get hurt if the situation changed and she didn’t adapt. Talon would understand, and the only thing she should be kicking herself for was taking so long to see where her priorities lay.