by M. D. Cooper
Grayson continued, “She had the element of surprise. This time, I’m the one who surprised them all while you slept. Granted, she gave me some trouble, but in the end, she didn’t want to see Rogers and Winter die just because she was a stubborn little girl. By the way, are you feeling better, Kylie?”
“Much. Is Grayson all right?”
“He’s right here with us.” Jerrod smiled, his face twisted with something that wasn’t happiness. “He sees everything I do.”
“Then I ask him to fight. To get free of you.”
Grayson’s laugh was mocking. “If such a thing was possible, he would. If he doesn’t ever seem to stop complaining, I may have to sever my connection with him further. It’s highly distracting.”
No… “Leave him alone.”
Grayson took two more steps. “You’re not in any position to give orders, to me or anyone anymore. General Samuel will soon determine your sentence. Grayson too. Everyone on board this ship will be punished for their crimes. In the end, everything will end up as it should have—if you had done your duty. Lana will be with her father, and we’ll have the edge to hold back Scipio.”
“Don’t count on it,” Kylie said. She charged forward, a fist pulled back, and swung toward Grayson’s head.
His hand snapped up and he caught it easily, but wasn’t able to push her back. Kylie smirked with satisfaction as Grayson’s arm wavered.
“Well,” he said, the strain from holding her fist audible in his voice. “You’ve gotten stronger…you’ve…”
“It’s an upgrade.”
Kylie pulled her arm back and swung her other fist into the side of his head. The force of the blow toppled the large man and he slammed into the bulkhead.
He crashed to his knees, then slammed the heels of both palms into her ribs. Kylie flew through the air, landing on her side and rolling to a stop.
Kylie cast about, looking for a weapon as she backed down the corridor.
Kylie said.
Kylie didn’t know what that had to do with it; the conduit was insulated. She reached out and touched it anyway.
Nothing happened.
Kylie did, and suddenly the palm of her hand tingled. Then the conduit began to dissolve.
Jerrod stopped Grayson’s body and his eyes narrowed.
“So it did transfer properly. I had wondered. It successfully passed from Lana to you. And you didn’t die.”
“Was that a real concern?” Kylie asked.
Jerrod chuckled robotically. “From what we managed to learn from S&H, yes, a very real concern.”
Kylie pulled her hand away from the bulkhead, where a gap now existed in the conduit. Within lay a small pistol.
Kylie charged at Jerrod. He widened his stance, staying low, ready to block whatever she threw at him, or grab any punches or kicks.
Block this.
Kylie swung her arm out and fired the gun at his chest. A look of pure surprise appeared on Jerrod’s face as the bullet hit him in the chest, right above the heart.
The shot didn’t knock Jerrod back, but Kylie’s enhanced hearing picked up a sucking sound coming from the wound. She lunged at him, grabbing his right leg, and pulling him back.
She delivered a series of blows to his chest and side, taking several in response.
But the fight was going out of him. One lung just wasn’t enough to power all those enhanced muscles. After Kylie drove a fist into his solar plexus, he finally fell flat, gasping for air.
“Kylie,” he gasped, and that look, a look of recognition was back in his eyes.
But she couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t trust it. Why the hell would she trust a scumbag AI like Jerrod? A being owned by the space force, heart and soul—had to be to sell them out like that
“Please,” Grayson whispered and tears shone in his eyes. Actual tears and slowly, Kylie lowered her fists and slid off him. She backed up to the bulkhead, her chest heaving as she studied his face.
“Gray?”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “He only let me go now, for fear you might really kill us, but I knew…”
Kylie reached for him but pulled her hand back. It could be a trick and even if it wasn’t, what was to stop Jerrod from doing it again? “I wish this solved all our problems.”
She stood and strode to the airlock, peering inside to see Lana struggling to rise while Winter and Rogers were still looking around groggily.
She palmed the control and the lock cycled open. “Everyone okay?” Kylie asked.
Rogers rolled and pushed himself onto his knees. “You’re awake.”
“What the hell?” Winter’s gaze burned holes through her. “Where the hell have you been? And…Jerrod, you stupid mother—” Winter struggled to his feet and tried to push past Kylie into the corridor.
She held out an arm and casually pushed him back. “That’s Grayson, not Jerrod, so don’t hurt him.”
Winter’s eyes widened. “Since when are you made of steel?”
Over Winter’s shoulder, Rogers shook his head.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Kylie said, “right now we have to get the hell out of here before half the Silstrand Space Force shows up.”
“I can help with that,” Grayson said as he rose shakily to his feet. The wound on his chest was no longer sucking air, and Kylie was relieved that his nano was able to repair it. Even so, Kylie felt bad for him, real bad.
Lana reached Kylie’s side and locked eyes with Grayson. There was no compassion in her gaze. Whatever had happened while Kylie had been asleep, it had certainly disturbed the young woman.
Kylie hoped it was something Lana could get past.
“No chance, Grayson,” Winter said, his gruff voice breaking the silence. “No offense, but we can’t trust that your brain is yours. Until we find a way to deal with this, he’s gotta go into the airlock.”
“It won’t hold Jerrod if he decides to make another move.” Lana said. “We saw what he can do.”
Marge said to the group—excluding Grayson.
Marge sighed, and Kylie wondered how well the two AI got along.
ge said.
Kylie waked toward Grayson. “Do you trust me?” she asked.
Grayson’s eyes were filled with worry, but he nodded. “Do whatever you have to do.”
Kylie still didn’t trust that Jerrod wouldn’t resume control, and she snaked her arm out as quickly as possible, placing her palm over his hard-Link port.
Nothing happened for a moment, and then Grayson collapsed into her arms.
“Well that’s creepy as fuck,” Winter said. “So, you can just kill-switch any of us whenever you want?”
Kylie shrugged. “I guess. It’s not really that different than shooting someone. That takes them down too.”
“Yeah,” Rogers chuckled. “But you need a gun to do that. You just need…well…you.”
“Won’t work with me—I think,” Lana said.
“Doesn’t help Rogers and I,” Winter groused.
“I don’t need to worry about it,” Rogers said. “I never do stuff that would make the captain want to comify me. You, on the other hand, big guy. You should probably be on your best behavior.”
Rogers was grinning and Winter looked crestfallen. Maybe he really did want to fit in on the ship.
“Winter, get to engineering and see what Grayson did to the power plant. Get the drives warming up as well. The rest of you, get to the bridge. I’ll put Grayson back into the medbay.”
The crew dispersed, and Kylie picked Grayson up in her arms. He was heavy, but not so much that she had to exert herself to carry him.
Back in the medbay, she set him on the table and re-fastened the straps.
Marge said.
She turned and left the medbay. They had a lot of work to do if they were going to save Nadine, kill Harken, and help Maverick keep his place in Gedri—something that still didn’t feel any less distasteful than it had the day before.
* * * * *
“How’s it look?” Kylie asked as she walked onto the bridge.
“Well, no one nearby,” Rogers said. “If we hadn’t already tempted fate twice in the last two weeks by going into the dark layer while insystem, I’d do it again just to get some distance.”
“Let’s not take that risk again unless we really have to,” Kylie said.
“Is it really that dangerous?” Lana asked from the comm console.
It gave Kylie a pang of sadness to see another woman there, but that would change soon. Before long Nadine would be back on board and then they’d figure out where things would go from there.
“Yeah, it’s more than just dangerous. In the DL you can’t see matter coming, it just hits you and then that’s it. You’re smushed. Doing it insystem like we did before is normally suicide—except that I knew about that little clear space from another crew I used to run with.”
“Oh yeah?” Lana asked. “What made you leave them?”
Rogers coughed. “What didn’t? Let’s just say they were a bit too…eager to take money for any job that came along.”
“They still out there?” Lana asked.
“Nope. They transitioned into the DL near Townsend and that was the last anyone ever saw of them.”
“Townsend?” Lana asked.
“Sheesh kid, read a map, will ya? It’s the dwarf star in this system, orbits Gedri at about fifty AU, give or take a bit,” Rogers said.
“Oh, in school they called that star Torus,” Lana said.
Rogers snorted. “Torus? You mean Townsend? Never heard it called Torus before. What kinda school were you going to anyway?”
“OK, now that we all know how space works, and what the local stars are named, what’s the plan?” Kylie asked.
“Well, you had us pushing off that dwarf planet, Pellan. I’m going to pull us in instead, loop around and get on the right vector. If meathead down in engineering can get the lights and engines rolling, then we can be on our merry way—hopefully no one the wiser.”
Kylie couldn’t help a small chuckle.
She gripped Rogers’ shoulder in an act of affection and headed for the exit.
“Ow! Kylie, enough with the shoulder? You don’t know your own strength anymore,” Rogers complained.
“Get used to it,” Kylie laughed.
“What are we going to do about Grayson when we get to this hideout?” Lana asked. “We can’t keep him locked up forever.”
“We’re going to hope that someone on Maverick’s payroll is a skilled enough tech and surgeon to remove Jerrod.”
“Shouldn’t he get a say in that?” Lana asked.
Kylie shrugged. “Pretty sure he’d agree with me. He doesn’t want to stay trapped in his own head forever.”
“Can it be reprogrammed?” Rogers asked.
“Uh…no. But that still doesn’t explain what we’re going to do with Jerrod.”
Kylie didn’t know either, though she didn’t much care. Death would be too kind.
“I’ll get that coffee on,” Kylie said. “After whatever my body did for the last day, I’m famished.”
She walked off the bridge toward the galley. Even though it was good to finally have everything under control, she wasn’t ready to spend a lot of time with the rest of the crew.
As she walked into the galley, Kylie wondered if Grayson would be upset when he found Jerrod gone.
Kylie stepped into the galley and stopped at the coffee maker.
Kylie scooped some coffee grounds into the filter.
Or were they just machines, no different than her coffee maker.
That it was. Kylie needed to be more careful.
Kylie cringed as she poured water into her coffee maker.
Marge sent her a sad smiley face across their neuro net.
“What’s going to happen to me when we get to Maverick’s base?”
Kylie pivoted too fast and the room spun. She grabbed her forehead. “Lana, hey…”
“You’re still not right. It’s still effecting you. I’m sorry this happened.” Lana’s lips turned down. “But I have to know… I’m safe with you, right?”
“Of course, you are. I put my neck on the line to rescue you. Why wouldn’t you be safe?” Kylie asked.
Lana shrugged. “Nadine. She was your crew, your girlfriend, and now she’s gone. They want me. So…it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. You were going to trade me for her.”
Kylie swallowed hard. “We’ve been over this. I was never going to make the trade. I was just buying time. Sure, at first I had thought about it, but once I saw you…I never would have traded you.”
“Sure.” Lana sighed and turned around, shaking her head. “I should’ve known better than to trust a junker.”
“Hey,” Kylie said and narrowed her eyes. She gripped Lana’s arm and turned her back. “I didn’t ask to get thrown into this, okay? I just wanted to save a member of my crew. When I saw how they were treating you, things changed. I cared what happened and the situation got a hell of a lot more complicated after that.”
“I didn’t ask to be kidnapped either, okay?” Lana’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t want any of this.”
“Except to stick it to your dad, right? We’re on the same side. I won’t turn you over to the SA or anyone that’ll hurt you—but I might need your help rescuing Nadine. She was kidnapped because of you after all.”
“Well, since you put it so nicely.” Lana snorted and crossed her arms. Then her expression softened. “I’m trying, okay? I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel myself and it’s messing with my head. I wish…”
Wish she had never taken the nano? Never agreed to the mission? Yeah, Kylie could definitely agree with that.
