When anyone says inward it means toward Earth. Sol base. Depending on where you are at the time, the comment could be as vague as a whole galaxy between you and our home planet. “Inward? And do you trust this courier?”
“Take it easy, Bren, you were just brought back to life. Literally,” Derek says. “Markov can take care of himself.”
I look up at Derek and see the glint of jealousy hidden behind his concern for me. “It’s not like that, Derek. Yes, Markov is my friend and I want to make sure he’s safe, but he’s also a witness.” I look over at Red. “He saw everything Red and I saw. The galactic troops will do anything to track the three of us down so we don’t tell anyone.”
Derek exchanges a look with my dad.
“I’m not delirious. Just make sure no one on the station knows Red and I are here until we can explain.” My energy feels drained, and I look over to see my dad adding a shot to my IV. “Dad, promise to keep Red safe, too.” My eyelids grow heavy as I watch his dark eyes flash but he nods his head assuring me right before everything goes dark again.
I wake to a strange noise but in my own bed this time. I stretch my arms and legs quietly as I try to figure out what woke me up. At least I wasn’t shocked awake this time. My joints feel stiff and sore, like I just ran the mile in under ten minutes. When I’m sure my whole body survived the deep freeze, I sit up.
I let out a startled yelp before I can stop myself. The sound in turn wakes up the body on my bedroom floor. It was his snoring I heard.
Relief floods warm through my body as I realize it’s just Derek. I grin. “You were snoring.”
“Well I think you just scared every snore out of me I’ll ever have.” He puts his hand on his chest as he takes in deep breaths.
“Mission accomplished.”
He sits up and reaches for my hand. “How are you feeling?”
The touch doesn’t hurt or tingle, so I must be through the worst of the cold’s effect. I squeeze his hand, glad to be among the living again.
“I’m good.” I throw my legs over the side of the bed. My head spins, and I freeze in place. “A bit of a headache I guess.”
“Your dad said that might happen. He gave me these for you.” Derek opens the package and places a med tab on my tongue.
“Thank you.” I close my eyes as I wait for the meds to take the edge off the headache and dizziness.
I open my eyes quickly. “What about Red? Where is he?”
“He’s kind of strange, isn’t he?”
I smile. “Miners can be a bit different. But is he all right?”
“Yes, your dad has him in the autopsy rooms. They unloaded the rest of his friends into your morgue freezers. Best place for him to hide, your dad said.” Derek grins.
I lean closer to Derek. “Ah. A bit of payback for stashing his daughter in the deep freeze, huh?”
His smile fades into concern. “I was worried about you. We heard the galactic fleet put out a locate for you, so we knew you had disappeared for some reason. What was it you guys saw? Did you discover the reason for these attacks?”
I stretch my stiff muscles. My first instinct is not to say anything. I need to talk to Red so we can figure out what to do. I watch as Derek unfolds himself from the floor and sits next to me on the bed. I can trust Derek. His warmth and familiar smell relaxes and encourages me.
The bed creaks as I turn slightly toward Derek and tell him what we saw. His eyes widen at the mention of the AI problems, but he stays quiet to listen to my story right up to the point when I lost unconsciousness in the body bag.
“Ugh. I don’t know how you dealt with being enclosed in a dark body bag. Weren’t you claustrophobic?”
I self-consciously run my fingers through my curls. Great, I wonder how bad I look after being frozen and revived? “No, not really. I’m used to enclosed spaces, and I work with body bags and the dead all the time.” I look down. “The only thing I had a problem with was when my body started freezing. It was painful trying to keep still when my body’s instincts were to move to stay alive.”
Derek gently untangles my nervous fingers from my curls and rubs my hands and arms to warm me up. This time the tingles are pleasurable, and my body heats in response. “Does your skin hurt anymore?” His voice is husky.
I shake my head, not losing his gaze.
He leans in and gently kisses me, and I lean in thankful to be back here with him. Between Derek’s long recovery and physical therapy and my leaving to the asteroid, we haven’t had too much time alone together. I ache to spend time with him in our spot by the pond in the greenhouse looking up at the stars together. Our kisses become heated, and his arm wraps around my back, pulling me toward him.
A loud chime startles both of us, and we automatically part. Catching my breath I watch Derek’s exasperated face as we both realize it was my door chime. I smooth down my shirt and sit up straight. “Come in.”
I expected it to be my dad, but it’s Red. And he looks distressed.
Chills travel up and down my spine. “What’s wrong, Red?”
“I was just worried about you. I feel bad how long it took to get you out of the freezer.”
I sink back toward Derek, relieved there’s not another emergency. I’m still aching so bad I doubt I could do much running or hiding right now. “Don’t worry about that Red, I know you did your best. I’m fine.”
He looks between Derek and me with a suspicious glance.
I nod my head toward Derek. “I told him everything. You can trust him.”
“I can, can I? I thought dozens of times before I could trust someone, and then they turned out to be untrustworthy, or even worse, spies for the galactic command.”
“I am not a spy.” Derek says as he crosses his arms.
I place my hand on Derek’s muscular arm and narrow my eyes at Red. “If I trust him, which I do, then you can trust him.”
“Just because you’re smitten with him doesn’t mean he should be trusted.” I see Red’s jaw flex even as he leans casually against the doorjamb. Derek stiffens beside me.
My face warms. “Smitten?” I stand up, steadying myself with one hand on Derek’s shoulder. “The same day I met you, I trusted you to freeze me to death while a galactic commander was just inches away from me. You can trust Derek. Besides, Derek not only works in security, which could be helpful to our situation right now, but he also has an electronics background. He understands the machine as I described it.”
“Security?” Red pushes himself off the doorjamb. “I’m supposed to trust someone who answers to the galactic command?”
“I’m Delta Station security. Galactic doesn’t have any oversight on us.” Derek leans forward his fists clenched. “Not out on the Fringe.”
“Any security force is always under the galactic thumb.” Red squares up against us.
I step forward and immediately regret the motion. My legs are still weak and stabbing pain shoots through the bottom of my feet. But I stand firm and grit my jaw as I say, “Stop. I trusted Derek way before I even met you. And I trusted you even though you ended up not being the person you said you were.”
Red crosses his arms again. “Technically, I never said I was the miner in charge of your tour.”
“Well, technically you didn’t give me any other choice.” I lean on my desk for support.
Red’s eyes light upon the space shuttle model on my desk. “You still have it.” He crosses the small space and picks up the model.
I take the model back from him and carefully put it back down. I know the data stick isn’t in it anymore, but I’m still nervous. “Yes, but right now we need to talk about the future not the past.” I turn and lean on the desk so the model is behind me.
“And Derek, Red isn’t just a miner who was able to smuggle me out on a ship.” I have to stop myself from looking for my pack and the data stick hidden in it. “Red also owns the asteroid mine that was attacked and several others.” I look to Red for confirmation.
He no
ds, and I continue. “He’s also the one who pulled the strings for me to investigate the attacks.” I turn to watch the miner. “Isn’t that right, Red? It wasn’t the commander’s idea. You somehow through all your channels made it possible for me to be the one over there. So you could show me the experiment.”
He stares me down but I don’t flinch or blink. His eyes flick once to the shuttle but then back up to me. “Yes, as you know I’ve been keeping track of you.”
A disgusted sound comes from Derek. Red looks at him. “It’s nothing creepy or sinister, Mr. Paz. Her mother was an old friend of mine. Before she died she made me promise to keep an eye out for Brenna.” He puts both hands in his pockets and leans back against the door. “After Delta was attacked, I knew I had to do something. Brenna’s reputation of finding the missing Tempest crew and the data stick has gone viral all the way back to Earth.”
Derek shifts toward me. His warm arm touches mine, feeling almost hot in my still-cold state. I know he’s just being protective, but his closeness makes me wish we were alone in this room right now. My body heats in response to his proximity.
“Seriously? Earth?” I manage to croak out, trying to ignore what Derek’s touch is doing to me.
“Yes, you’ve gotten the attention of a lot of bad people. So I’ve been watching you closely ever since.”
“I don’t understand. There are starship pilots and miners endangering their lives to save thousands of people across the Fringe. I was only able to save a fraction of the crew. It was nothing noteworthy.”
“But your investigative skills coupled with the fact you are Aubrianna Teves’ daughter is what caught their attention. People assume you took up where your mom left off.”
I sigh and lean into Derek. He wraps his arm around me for support, and I smile up at him grateful. My weak body just wants to lie back down, but my mind is telling me I need to finish the investigation.
On the other corner of my desk sits a photo cube. I pick it up and watch the pictures of my mom and me flash across the small screens. On each side I’ve loaded different chunks of time out of my life. When I was a baby there are pictures of the three of us, my mom and dad and me. Then growing up. I frown as I realize I haven’t loaded any pictures since I’ve been at Delta.
I look up at Red. “I don’t know what that means still — to take up after my mom. I didn’t know any of the stuff you told me about her.”
The room suddenly feels smaller somehow, and I pull away from Derek and pace to the other side of it and back. I stop in front of Derek and Red. “I need you two to trust each other. For me. It’s going to take all of us to figure this out.”
Derek hesitates but then wraps me in a hug and whispers in my ear. “You know I’ll do anything for you, Bren. If you trust him, then we’ll figure all this out together.”
“Thank you,” I whisper back.
He pulls back, and I instantly miss his warmth.
Derek doesn’t look at Red; he keeps his gaze on me. “I’ll go to security to find out if there is any chatter about Markov. I’ll meet you two back here in a few hours.”
“Thank you, Derek,” says Red and holds out his hand.
“I’m doing this for Bren,” Derek says coldly. But he squeezes Red’s hand and heads out the door.
16
Uneasy Truce
After Derek leaves I flop down on the edge of my bed exhausted. I look around for my shoes. After I manage to get them on I look up to see Red still standing there watching me with a concerned look. “Do you need more rest?”
I shake my head. “No way. I’m starving. Let’s see what Dad brought us to eat, and then I should get to work helping with your friends.” I watch Red’s face as I mention the dead waiting in our freezers. He keeps his face impassive, but I can tell it’s from lots of experience with losing friends, not that it doesn’t bother him. The tick in his jaw where his beard is thinnest, gives him away.
He takes a deep breath. “I know we need to stay here so no one sees us, but I can’t just sit around and do nothing. Does your dad have one of those dedicated medical computers I could use to do some secure research?”
I smile. “Of course. Let’s go find him.”
Red follows me down the narrow corridor to my dad’s office. We find him behind his desk, his tall frame bent over his computer. He’s not typing, just staring.
“Dad?” I push the door all the way open and step into the plush office. He uses this office mostly for talking to people about their deceased loved ones, so it’s a peaceful warm space, despite the whole reason for having a receiving room. And that we’re just a few meters away from a freezer full of dead bodies.
He looks up, and it takes a few seconds for his eyes to refocus and for him to pull himself out of whatever he was studying. I grin. “What are you looking at?”
He opens his mouth to answer, but then he notices Red step up behind me and clamps it shut. His eyes harden.
The silence in the room thickens, and I doubt either man is going to make the first move to speak, so I step forward. “Dad, I appreciate you making sure Red is safe here as well. I don’t know what happened between you guys in the past, but right now we need him.” I look behind me to see Red staring at a spot in the carpet. I turn back to my dad. “And since we’ll be here for a while, he can help us better if he can use one of our secure terminals.”
Dad’s eyes flick quickly to me but return to Red, who has raised his gaze.
“What do you need a secure terminal for?”
Red steps next to me. “For starters I promised your daughter I would find her friend Markov and get him to safety. Then we need to figure out what is going on here, so I need to make contact with some of my allies.”
“So, you make my daughter a fugitive from the galactic command, freeze her to death, and you think I’m going to just let you use one of my secure terminals? Everything is linked to my name; I have access to almost every database galaxy-wide. How do I know you’re not just making another shady deal?”
I look to Red, whose face has gone pale. I knew there was some history between them because of Mom, but I thought Dad would be at least grateful that Red saved my life.
“Dad, Red is just trying to help.”
He stands up and steps around his desk to face Red. He’s got at least eight inches on him, but Red squares his shoulders and looks up at my dad. “You know I would never hurt Brenna. I’m doing this for Aubrianna. I promised her I would look out for your daughter, to help if it ever came down to it.”
The muscles in my dad’s jaws flex, and I can almost hear his teeth grinding. “Don’t be talking about Aubrie.”
“You know we were only friends. I was once your friend too.”
Dad steps backwards, his fists balled so tight the knuckles are almost white. I don’t think I’ve seen this much emotion from him since Mom died. I watch as he takes a few purposeful deep breathes to calm down before he speaks.
“But we’re not friends anymore. You’re only here instead of in a galactic brig because of Bren.” He points a long finger at me. “I’m only dealing with you because of her.” He turns toward me, his body stiff and his expression perfectly controlled. “And after all this, you think you can trust him?” His gaze pierces me like a scalpel.
I swallow. Dad has never been this intense, even after I got actively involved with finding Sergeant Scott after the attack. Since Mom died and I’ve come to live with Dad, he’s pretty much given me space to do what I want around Delta station and has trusted me completely as his coroner’s apprentice. As I look into his eyes, I realize I’ve gone from just trying to get used to living here with him to wanting to earn his respect and love. My stomach feels hollow.
I look to Red, trying to remember why my instincts were to trust him the first time. Was it just because I grew up around miners, and he reminded me of that happy period of my life? Or was it because he knew things about my mom I didn’t? Was I using him to feel close to her again? I take in his sturdy
frame, which like most miners has learned to endure the harsh living in tunnels. But as a business owner, he’s also figured out how to deal with many types of people to get what his mines might need. The lines around his eyes show he’s made the best of a tough life, and although under scrutiny, he looks relaxed right now, a well-earned kind of pride beaming from him.
“Yes, Dad.” I take a deep breath. “We can trust him, not only because he made a promise to Mom, but he’s a good man. He’s got not only got the grit and honesty of the mines covering him, but he knows how to make deals behind the galactic command’s back.”
I turn back to Dad. “I know that all sounds negative to you, but it’s not. It’s just what we need right now to keep investigating these attacks. We need to stop whoever is behind them. And he’s our best bet now that the galactic troops are involved. I can’t hide here forever. We need to figure out where the next attack will be and get there before it happens.”
Both men are staring at me with open mouths. I grind my jaw before I speak. “What? Did you think I was just going to stay here in hiding while there’s someone, well maybe lots of some ones out there killing innocent people?”
They both turn to look at each other. I give out a frustrated grunt. “Fine you two hash it out. I’m going to the morgue.” I pause at the door to pull my hair up into a thick ponytail and tie it back with one of the many hair ties I always keep in my pockets. “But Dad, please let Red do his research. We need to find out what’s going on out there beyond Delta station.”
I slam the door and stalk down the corridor to the morgue. The cold doors are welcoming as I roughly push them open. It’s early enough that none of the staff are here yet. I stop at one of the autopsy tables and grip the metal sides tightly in my hands. The shiny surface seems to mock me as I try to think back on the trail of disaster that led to this minute.
Did this destruction and death start with my mom’s ideas? What else don’t I know about my mom, or what she was actually doing there on Mars? And if these people are willing to kill, was my mom’s death not an accident? Why didn’t she tell me about this project?
Delta Fringe Series Boxset: Books 1-3 Page 29
