“What’s the deal here?” Nickie asked the guard while they paused at a heavy iron door. “I mean, no one is stupid enough to think slavery is a viable way to make a profit anymore.”
The guard glared daggers at her before turning to the iris scanner.
Nickie shrugged. “Fine, don’t talk. Darius, make him hurry up. I told you, I’m not waiting around forever.” She wrinkled her nose as she looked around in disdain. “This place is gross.”
You missed the scanner, Meredith told her.
His fucking head was in front of it, Nickie retorted. Did I suddenly develop x-ray vision?
The guard pushed the door open and entered the holding floor ahead of them. A brief burst of many voices in conversation leaked out but ceased immediately when the guard stepped onto the floor.
Nickie shoved past Darius to get through the door before him. Meredith, there are more than humans here. There’s what, twelve cells here, and they’re full.
What can you do that won’t endanger any of them?
Nickie thought about it for a moment. That’s not an issue. A smile played across her lips. I think the question is, whose account will I get the most joy from raiding to buy their freedom?
Meredith snickered. I wouldn’t like to be you when Barnabas finds out what you’ve done.
Then he shouldn’t have pranked me first. Get me access, and connect it to my wrist holo. “Hey, I want to speak to your boss about buying all these slaves.”
The Zhyn guard headed straight for a bank of switches on the wall opposite the cell floor without acknowledging Nickie.
She walked over and grabbed the guard’s arm. “Hey! I’m talking to you. Are these slaves for sale or not?”
Darius found his voice at last. “It’s okay, Verril. She’s probably just after squeezing a few more credits on top of what I’m paying her to take care of Doxie’s little embarrassment.”
The Zhyn reacted at last. He turned and grabbed Darius by the throat. “You don’t talk about the boss like that. He looks after us like Bloat never did.” He looked Nickie up and down. “The stock is for sale to those who can afford it. You do not look like someone who can afford it.”
“Like fuck, I can’t,” Nickie retorted. She dipped her fingers into her pocket and pulled out the thousand-credit chip she’d put there while dressing. “Don’t be fooled because I’m slumming it here with Darius. We’ll take care of the humans.” She flipped the chip for the Zhyn to catch mid-air. “But call your boss and tell him I want to talk business.”
The Zhyn examined the chip, then nodded to Nickie as he pocketed it. He touched his ear and murmured for a few moments. He turned back to Nickie. “Boss says six mil for the lot.”
Nickie made a show of examining the slaves in the cells. “Hmm. That doesn’t give me much margin. Tell him my offer is four-nine.”
The guard passed along her counter offer, then nodded. “Payment first. Boss’ orders,” he told her.
Nickie swiped her wrist holo against the Zhyn’s.
He glanced at his wrist holo, then nodded toward the other end of the cell block. “Congratulations on your purchase. This way.”
That might have been a little extravagant for your means, Meredith remarked.
Fuck, yes, Nickie replied. Uncle B. can replace it. He’ll thank me when Lance is happy I didn’t trash his operation.
Jennie and her crew were in a less than cooperative mood when the Zhyn released them. They huddled together and advanced on Nickie, Darius, and the Zhyn.
Nickie groaned internally. Meredith, do something.
The Zhyn raised his blaster just as the crew received Meredith’s assurance they were being rescued in their implants and backed down. He growled and waved them into line. “That’s what I thought. Outside, all of you.”
Captain Jennie narrowed her eyes at Nickie as she passed. Nickie winked at Jennie in return.
The Zhyn jabbed Jennie in the ribs with his blaster. “Keep moving.”
Chapter 17 Nickie
Federation Outpost, Team Base
Nickie held her glass high to avoid losing her drink to the dancing around her. She swayed her hips to the music as she crossed the rec room, nodding to Jennie and Jason. She paused when she met Harrison’s eyes.
Meredith had something to say, as usual. Will you admit you’re attracted to Harrison now that the mission is complete?
Nickie looked away. Aren’t you satisfied with getting Jennie’s crew back and rescuing all those other people? The Polaris has only just left, for fuck’s sake. Give me a minute to breathe before you start nagging.
Jennie is fine, Meredith countered, and the people you rescued are all being taken care of and returned to their homes. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing to let your hair down, would it?
Nickie groaned internally. Shut up, Meredith! I’m not interested, okay?
Harrison had that look as he approached her. Tipsy, and a little bit hungry. “You want to disappear a while? I think we can escape without anyone noticing.”
Nickie spotted Grim sitting alone at a small table in the corner. Her old friend had two clean tumblers on the table in front of him. Seeing Nickie, Grim produced a large bottle and set it between the glasses.
She nodded toward him, glad of the excuse to let Harrison down easily. “Doesn’t look like the stars are in alignment.”
Harrison took one look at her thoughtful expression and nodded in understanding. “I hope you two work it out. You’re good people, and you deserve it.” He leaned in to whisper, “But if you get done early, you know where my quarters are.”
Nickie winked. “You know, maybe I will. But right now I’ve got a long-overdue explanation to hear.” She brushed past Harrison and made her way over to Grim.
Grim looked up as she arrived at his table. “Hey.”
Nickie rolled her eyes and dropped into the seat opposite him. “Wipe that sorry-ass look off your face, Grim. This isn’t a trial. I just want answers.” She grabbed the whiskey bottle and unscrewed the cap, sighing as she poured them both an extra-large measure. “I guess I owe you a few as well.”
Grim tilted his head. “No, you’re entitled to your feelings. I’m sorry for making you wait for answers.”
Nickie raised her glass, forgetting her own confession for the moment. “I’ve worked most of it out. I just need to know one thing.”
Grim touched his glass to hers and took a sip. “What do you want to know?”
Nickie hesitated, finding the admission difficult to put into words now that the moment had arrived. She sipped her drink to buy another second. “I just want to know why you stuck around.”
Grim choked, spraying his mouthful of whiskey everywhere.
Nickie pushed her chair back to avoid getting an unwelcome facial. “What the fuck, Grim?”
Grim coughed, clearing his throat of rogue alcohol. “Sorry, it’s just…” He wiped his mandibles with his sleeve. “You’re kidding, right? I thought you found out Tabitha sent me and you were going to make me leave. That’s why I’ve been putting you off. You’re my best friend, Nickie. I stuck around because I wanted to.”
Nickie couldn’t process the sheer weight of her relief. She put her drink down and gripped Grim’s hand. “I have to tell you something. I don’t want you to overreact, okay?”
Grim nodded, extracting his somewhat crushed fingers. “Okay?”
Nickie grinned. “Barnabas—”
Meredith cut in. I’m sorry to interrupt. Sayomi is preparing her ship to leave. You have maybe ten minutes to get there.
Nickie jumped up and grabbed the bottle. “Shit! Come on, Grim. We’ve got to run, or we’re gonna miss our ride home.”
Federation Outpost, QBS Sayomi, Bridge
Nickie ran onto the bridge, pausing at the top of the staircase to look for Sayomi’s avatar. “Sayomi? What’s going on?”
The AI appeared before her, wearing armor instead of the ghostly accouterments Nickie had seen her wearing so far. “There has been an
Ooken attack on the Silver Line network. I am the closest ship to the location.”
Nickie grimaced. “Another attack? Fuck. What can I do?”
Sayomi shook her head, the shine in her eyes the only thing that differentiated them from the rest of her face. “You will remain aboard. I’m not averse to confining you if you decide not to comply. The Ooken aren’t anything to mess with unless you have one of the highest levels of enhancement.”
Nickie raised an eyebrow. “I’m not far from that. I can heal myself.”
Far enough away that you probably won’t survive, Meredith warned. Don’t make me snitch to Sayomi.
Nickie dismissed Meredith’s nagging. “How often are the routes being attacked?” she asked, following Sayomi down the stairs.
The AI waved a finger at one of the secondary consoles as she walked past to stand in front of the wraparound screen. “See for yourself, Captain, I have provided all the data you have clearance to access. We will Gate shortly.”
Nickie took a seat and skimmed the reports. “These all look like chancers trying their luck. Robberies, not massacres.”
Grim caught the end of Nickie’s sentence as he entered the bridge. “What massacres?”
Nickie shook her head. “I was saying that there haven’t been any massacres.”
Grim glanced at Sayomi’s back. “So why the rush to leave? We were just getting started with the party.”
Nickie nodded at the screen. “Take a look.”
The Sayomi exited the Gate in the center of a debris field—the remains of a ship.
“Are we too late?” Grim asked, joining Nickie to examine the devastation.
“Which ship is that?” Nickie asked, waving Grim off for the moment.
Sayomi shook her head. “That information is for fleet command only. I need you to step back, Captain Grimes.”
Nickie clenched her fists, refusing to give in to her emotion. There was only one way she was getting in on this. She closed her eyes and said goodbye to her freedom. “Are you able to take an affidavit?”
Sayomi inclined her head. “ I am. Do you wish to record one?”
Nickie nodded. She opened her eyes and lifted her chin to meet the AI’s dark gaze. “Ready? I, Meredith Nicole Grimes, hereby accept the position of Silver Line Fleet Captain,” She paused, wondering if she was coming across as too stuffy. It wouldn’t do to give the impression she intended to become anybody’s golden girl. “Offered by that eternal pain in my ass, Barnabas, on behalf of Queen Bethany Anne Nacht. I want it recorded that I’m accepting this duty because there are lives at stake and it’s mine to claim.” She pressed her lips together. “That get me clearance, Sayomi?”
Sayomi’s eyes flashed red. “Affidavit witnessed by Grim’zee P. Bonesticker and sealed. Thank you, Fleet Captain Grimes. You have clearance to access classified material.”
Nickie grunted and returned to the secondary console. “Give my EI everything you’ve got.”
Grim’s mandibles fell open in shock when Nickie’s eyes turned white. “What did you just do?”
Nickie extracted herself from the torrent of data and flashed him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you Barnabas offered me the rank until I knew for sure you were gonna be sticking around.”
Nickie, Meredith intervened, You should see this. We’re on one of the side routes to Devon. That was a supply station, not a ship.
Nickie held up a finger while she skimmed the details of the war so far, paying extra attention to the parts that had information on Ooken physiology.
“I have located an Ooken ship signature at the far edge of this system,” Sayomi informed them, interrupting Grim’s spluttering reply. “We are in pursuit.”
Silver Line Route
Nickie remained glued to the viewscreen as the ship ate up the kilometers between them and the Ooken ship. The Sayomi came into range, giving Nickie and Grim their first look at the enemy that had Bethany Anne breathing fire.
The dreadnought was almost half the size of the rogue moonlet orbiting dangerously close to the system’s Kuiper belt, making it easily twice the size of the Sayomi.
“What are you going to do?” Nickie asked.
“This,” Sayomi replied. She fired on the Ooken, sending out two blue-white streaks that lit the void with bright contrails.
Nickie held her breath as one of the missiles exploded against the dreadnought’s shielding.
The dreadnought bucked under the impact, veering off-course.
Nickie’s lip curled. “Is that it?” She ate her words when the Ooken ship was rocked by another explosion, this one inside of the shield.
“Nice!” Grim exclaimed.
“Etheric-enabled missiles,” Sayomi explained as though it were completely normal for an explosive to vanish into another dimension and reappear.
The dreadnought spiraled, leaving a trail of twisted metal and shredded components behind.
Nickie leaned over the console, gripping it tightly in her excitement as the Ooken ship careened toward the moonlet. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go finish them off before they get back and tell the other Ooken where they are.”
Sayomi shook her head. “They already know. These invaders share one mind, so you can be assured there will be a reaction from the hive. We should scan the wreckage of the station for survivors, then get the hell out of here before the Ooken send reinforcements.”
Grim nodded. “That’s the most sensible thing I’ve heard since I got on this ship.”
Nickie gave the crash site a crestfallen glance as it receded in the viewscreen, half-regretting the missed opportunity to pit herself against a superior opponent for the first time since she was a kid.
Are you sure you’re not chasing adrenaline? Meredith asked as Nickie turned away from the screen.
Not even a little bit, Nickie replied. I was born for this.
Silver Line Route, Station Wreckage
Nickie paced the bridge, much to Grim’s annoyance. He didn’t want to stay in this system for a minute longer than they needed to be. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in command of the situation. “How long is this going to take, Sayomi?”
Sayomi flashed red eyes at him. “I have been scanning for less than a minute. What is it you expect me to have—” She tilted her head. “Oh, wait. There is a heartbeat.”
Nickie frowned, her eyes darting to the remains of the station’s superstructure. “A human heartbeat?”
Sayomi nodded, adding an overlay to the image on the viewscreen. “This is the infrared scan. There looks to be a portion of the station that is still mostly intact.”
Nickie couldn’t make out anything that looked humanoid on the infrared. The overlay on the sealed part of the wreckage was mostly shades of indigo and green, with splotches of fading orangey-yellow where the life support systems were winding down. “You sure it was a heartbeat?” she asked Sayomi.
Sayomi flourished a hand, and the image zoomed in on a small dark-orange blob. “It is faint. I believe the human is injured.”
“Are there any Ooken there?” Nickie asked.
“No,” Sayomi responded.
Nickie nodded. “Then we’d better move.”
Sayomi raised an eyebrow. “‘We?’”
Nickie slapped Grim’s back, ignoring his wince. “Yeah, how else do you expect whoever that is to make it out of there? This is the shit we live for. Isn’t that right, Grimmie?”
Grim sighed. “I’ll go get my exosuit back on,” he intoned wearily as he set off for the armory. “Don’t go out there without me.”
Chapter 18 Nickie
Silver Line Route, Station Wreckage
The Pod landed on the burnt hull of the station. Nickie and Grim exited the Pod and looked around for an easy entry into the wreck.
“This way.” Nickie set off along the hull toward a nearby airlock.
Grim scrutinized the lock pad. “You can open that, right?” He shuddered, his voice sounding strange to him inside his helme
t. “I hate armor, and nothing is going to make me change my mind.”
Nickie rolled her eyes as she moved past him to get a closer look. “Would you be saying that if you were standing out here without any?” She bent to examine the opening mechanism, reading the hololabel instructions as soon as the words resolved into English. “Manual lever is in the… Got it.” She straightened up and wrenched the mid-panel on the right-hand side of the hatch clean off.
She grinned at Grim in her HUD cam and pulled the lever down. “Bingo.”
Grim frowned as the hatch cycled open. “What’s a bingo?”
Nickie shrugged and slipped inside. “No idea.”
They passed through the airlock on the other side and made their way into the corridors beyond.
Grim gagged at the tableau of indiscriminate butchery they stepped into.
“Don’t throw up in there,” Nickie warned, feeling rising nausea herself at the sight of the bodies piled around the airlock. She managed to hold onto her cookies for the moment, touching her Etheric comm to activate it. Sayomi, you reading us?
Loud and clear, the AI responded. Your target location is approximately two kilometers from here. Take a left and follow the corridor until you reach the elevators. I will guide you from there.
Grim looked around uneasily, squinting a little under the harsh emergency lighting. This is unbelievable. This was a station just a few hours ago. How powerful are these Ooken?
Nickie couldn’t argue with Grim’s disbelief. I’m beginning to think very, she murmured, noting that apart from the odd chunk of tentacle among the bloodbath, there were no Ooken among the dead. Bethany Anne needs to know about this.
I have already sent the report with my scan data, Sayomi informed them.
Nickie trod softly, making no noise as they progressed past open doors toward the elevators. You wanna talk about my new job? she asked Grim, thinking to take his mind off his nerves.
Grim moved similarly stealthily, his concentration on his surroundings and picking his way through the organic slurry without slipping. What, now? he blurted.
Resolution Page 17
