Casmir looked at Asger, wishing he would override that plan, that for some reason he believed his employers would be more concerned about getting Kim back. But Asger nodded.
“Like you, I believe I can be more help out here in my own ship than standing uselessly on Ishii’s bridge. And you…” Asger pinned him with an appraising look. “I’m not sure yet what you can do, but I’m hoping it’s more than standing uselessly in a brig cell.”
“I hope I can, too, but may I ask why you have any faith in me?” Casmir hated to admit it, but he understood why a Kingdom Fleet captain would believe a civilian robotics engineer next to useless in a combat situation. Wouldn’t he feel the same way if a military officer came into his lab and offered to help assemble a robot?
That’s not the vessel we thought you’d meet us in, Bonita’s message scrolled down his contact while he waited for Asger to answer—if Asger intended to answer at all. Qin wants me to ask if you’re with a knight.
I am. Casmir didn’t say more, not when Asger had made that comment about freaks of nature. He had no idea how he would react to Qin’s unique appearance and abilities.
Is he going to help us get Kim?
Not exactly. There’s something else we have to do first.
I trust you’ll explain that while you’re telling me what this schematic you sent does.
I will.
Asger set a course to rendezvous with the Dragon, then gave Casmir another long, considering look. He opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head at whatever thoughts were on his mind. He finally said, “The queen believes you are worth protecting. Even at great cost.”
Casmir sank deeper in his pod, memories of Sir Friedrich returning to mind. Memories and guilt. What if he ended up getting Asger killed too?
Once the autopilot was engaged, Asger pulled out his book and propped his heels up on the navigation panel. He didn’t seem inclined to talk further.
Casmir closed his eyes, knowing his body needed rest, but he doubted his mind would comply.
9
Kim alternated between studying the computer readouts on the dozens of analyses of Rache’s blood that she had going and studying him. For a while, he’d spoken to one of his fighters who’d come in to update him on the search, but he’d returned to the wreck, and Rache was back to leaning against the jamb next to the lab, waiting to give Kim the tour she had requested. But his blood had become her little mystery, and she wanted to figure it out. It might hold a clue that could save them all.
Every other person in his party, including her, was getting more and more damaged, and he seemed unaffected. No, not seemed. His bloodwork showed that he was unaffected.
Why? Kim didn’t see anything abnormal in it. No nanobots roaming around repairing damage. His white blood-cell count was slightly higher than typical, but she’d seen that in people who got regular immune-system-enhancing shots.
“You’ve got cybernetic implants, right?” Kim asked.
“Yes, but so do many of my men who are affected.”
“And you get immune-system enhancers?”
“Yes, but so does Chaplain. We go together whenever we pass Jotunheim Station.” His tone turned dry. “While the other men visit the brothels and casinos.”
Whenever Rache got dry, his voice reminded her of Casmir. Even though she wouldn’t wish this illness on him, she wouldn’t have minded having him down here. She had a feeling this was all tied in with that wreck, and someone with an engineering background might have some insight that she lacked. Maybe she could talk to Rache’s engineer later.
She forced her wandering thoughts back on track. “Chaplain is one of the men here and affected, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Damn, I wish I had some of Casmir’s blood too. I’m curious if he shares your immunity. He’s sort of the baseline you, right?”
Kim squinted at Rache, wishing he’d take off the mask. His sleeping doctor was the only other person in the shuttle, and it sounded like he already knew about Rache and Casmir.
“I see he swore himself to secrecy after our chat.”
“We’ve been roommates for a long time. I know that he wears superhero underwear and uses Robot Remstar shampoo. Secrets are few.”
“I don’t know what to say to that.”
“I’m fairly certain he doesn’t know of anything unusual about himself or his genes. I don’t suppose you, being perhaps more knowledgeable, would care to enlighten me.”
“No.”
“Nothing that could account for your apparent immunity?”
“We’re not genetically engineered super humans, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I’ve shared a bathroom with Casmir for seven years. I know he’s not a super human.”
“Since you said your relationship isn’t romantic, I’ll assume that’s not a dig about the size of his reproductive organs.”
“No. I just assume a modded super human would be capable of replacing the toilet paper after finishing off the roll.”
“You think the geneticists code that in, eh?”
Kim made an exasperated noise and went back to the microscope and tests, scouring the data. The answer had to be here. It couldn’t be a fluke that Rache was fine when every other single person was dying, their cells aging decades for every day.
The hatch opened, and the engineer came back inside, ice crystals dusting the shoulders of her black combat armor.
“Sir?”
“Back here, Chief,” Rache said. “Any sign of parts of the gate?”
“No, Captain. We’ve been over about seventy-five percent of the ship at this point. We’ll keep looking, but, uhm, is Dr. Yas sleeping?”
“The snoring suggests it.”
“Shouldn’t he be… It’s Chains, sir. He’s not looking too good. And I’m kind of…” The woman looked toward Kim and her makeshift lab, then lowered her voice. “I’m not sure how much longer we’ve got, Captain.”
“Understood. Finish searching the ship, and then we’ll get out of here if we find nothing.”
“Back to the Fedallah, sir? Are the repairs complete?”
“Close to complete. I’ll comm them when we have reception and get an update.”
“Yes, sir.” The woman saluted and left the shuttle.
“The archaeology team took whatever this illness is back up to their ship, and their crew is dead now,” Kim said. “You might not want to—”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
Kim digested that. “Lying to the troops probably isn’t good for morale.”
“You have my blood, Scholar Sato. Find a solution.” Rache headed toward the hatch.
Apparently, her tour was off the table.
“You and your muscles and enhancements aren’t very good at people,” Kim muttered, not expecting him to hear the comment or to care if he did.
Rache, his hand on the hatch, looked at her. She braced herself for a threat.
“What would Casmir do to entice you to work harder?” he asked.
“He would know I’m doing the best I can, but he’d definitely offer to help me if I helped him. I came here looking for my mother. I know you saw her in that video. If your people happen to run across any droid bodies, I’d appreciate it if you told me.”
“They have not, but I will look myself,” he said and walked out.
Casmir gave the Stellar Dragon’s airlock hatch a jaunty knock from the outside. Zee stood behind him in the connecting tube that Asger had extended. The outer hatch opened, and they stepped into the airlock chamber. Asger jogged up the tube and hopped in with them. He wore a helmet, and presumably his fancy knight armor doubled as a spacesuit, but the cloak still hung down his back.
“You don’t need to stay and fly your ship?” Casmir had hoped to speak with Bonita and Qin without a stranger present, a stranger who might hurt Qin’s feelings with some rant about modded humans.
“The automatic pilot and wireless interface are the best there is.” As
ger waved at his temple. “And I need to keep an eye on you. Both eyes.”
“I hope that’s not literal. I’m a little squeamish about being touched by organs.”
Asger rested his hand on his pertundo, the telescoping handle retracted so it hung from a belt loop like a simple axe or mallet. Casmir hoped he didn’t think he would need it on the Dragon.
A red light flashed, and Bonita’s voice came through a speaker. “Just as a precaution, we’re running the decon program.”
“We haven’t been over to the research ship since we were last here,” Casmir said, “but if you feel you need to hose us off, that’s understandable. There’s a knight with me, so make sure the spray doesn’t wrinkle his cloak.”
Asger’s eyebrows twitched upward. Casmir smiled innocently. He’d wanted to warn Bonita of his presence so she wouldn’t have Qin answer the door, but he hoped Asger wouldn’t think anything of the comment.
A fine mist sprayed them from multiple nozzles, and Casmir was glad he was still wandering around in the galaxy suit. When they were finally able to step inside, Bonita waited with no fewer than ten robot vacuums rolling around the deck next to her.
Casmir blinked. Had she brought them down for repairs? How much could they have been damaged in the last day?
The vacuums zipped toward him, and he fought the urge to spring back into the airlock hatch for protection. A boisterous song he didn’t recognize played from speakers in the cargo hold, and the robots synchronized themselves as they flowed around and between Casmir’s legs in something akin to an organized dance.
He looked to Bonita for an explanation.
She rolled her eyes. “Viggo missed you.”
“The vacuums missed the one who repaired many of their faults,” Viggo said. “They are expressing their gratitude.”
“The vacuums aren’t the ones who play that silly opera every time they clean.”
“I’ve run tests. They perform more efficiently with music.”
Bonita shook her head. “You’re full of dung, Viggo.”
“My internal sanitation systems ensure that’s not possible.”
Asger stepped out of the chamber warily as he eyed the exuberant robots zipping around Casmir. “That may be the oddest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“You must not get off Odin much if that’s true.” Bonita frowned at him. Apparently, she didn’t share Qin’s fascination with knights. “You Casmir’s keeper?”
“In a manner of speaking. I am Sir William Asger.” He put some emphasis on the sir, as if to instruct her to use the honorific. He had better not hold his breath waiting for that. “Casmir, why does this woman think you need a keeper?”
“Well, she’s met me.”
As Zee strode out of the airlock chamber, the vacuums scattered, and the music stopped playing.
Asger focused on Bonita, his expression growing pensive. “You are Captain Bonita Lopez, a bounty hunter and smuggler?”
“Captain Laser Lopez, and I’ve retired from my brief stint with smuggling.” She turned her frown on Casmir before aiming it back at the knight.
Casmir wanted to tell her that Asger had looked her up on his own, that he hadn’t blabbed about her occupations. He hoped Asger wouldn’t try to arrest her.
“She’s also the pilot who’s going to take us to the gate to help the Kingdom Fleet,” Casmir said.
“Do we have to pay her?” Asger’s lip curled as he looked down his nose at her.
There was a height difference of some eight or nine inches, but Casmir had a feeling he would have looked down his nose no matter what, and he glanced nervously about, hoping Qin was in her cabin. They would have to meet eventually, but maybe it could wait until Asger was settled in and less… stuffy.
He hadn’t been that bad on the Osprey. It seemed smugglers and smuggling ships impinged on his knightly sense of morality.
“Casmir’s already bribed me with useless schematics, though I do hope he’s going to explain to me why we’re now going to the gate instead of back to Skadi Moon to retrieve Kim.” Bonita’s gaze met his. “Didn’t you say she’d been kidnapped? Is she still kidnapped?”
“Yes, and yes, but I promised to help Captain Ishii and the other Fleet captains with a problem—there’s an extremely high-tech and weapons-laden cargo ship trying to bust its way out of the system with stolen goods. A couple of warships are blockading the gate, but they’re having trouble taking the thieves down.”
“And how are you going to help with that?” Bonita waved at him. “Are you even armed?”
“With my wits, yes.”
“Dear God.”
The vacuums, having recovered from their alarm at Zee’s entry, buzzed in again. One ran over Casmir’s foot. He wasn’t sure if it was a programming mishap or if he had lint on his boot.
“I may also have a small robot army to call upon.” Casmir waved at the vacuums. “And I left my tool satchel in the cabin here, so I can make things.”
Asger considered the vacuums dubiously, then turned a more speculative eye on Zee. “Can you make more like that?”
“Not unless we go back to Forseti Station or Odin or somewhere with a huge manufacturing facility and all the materials and tools I would need.” Casmir didn’t mention how much it would cost to legally buy those materials, since he hadn’t purchased the ones he’d used on Zee. He felt like more of a criminal than Bonita currently, even if he hadn’t smuggled anything in his life.
“Too bad. An army of those might make a difference.” Asger tapped an invisible button on his chest, and his helmet retracted. “But we’d still have to figure out a way to get them aboard the enemy ship. I suppose we should head to the gate and see if the Fleet even needs our help. They may have dealt with the problem themselves by now.”
Casmir decided he should wish for that rather than for a chance to do something heroic that might cause Ishii to feel indebted to him so he would bring his big warship to help with Kim’s retrieval. Besides, Bonita was right. He didn’t have any weapons, and neither her freighter nor Asger’s shuttle would be a match for a ship capable of giving multiple Kingdom warships a hard time.
“If I get all the way to the gate,” Bonita said, heading across the cargo hold, “don’t count on me wanting to stick around in this benighted system.”
“Benighted?” Asger said with indignation.
“She might mean be-knighted,” Casmir said, though he was sure all knights had heard the pun far too many times to find it amusing.
Asger ignored him. He was looking at something across the cargo hold, his eyes narrowing.
Bonita had paused to make a shooing motion with her hand. Casmir glimpsed Qin jerking her head out of sight—she’d been leaning around the corner.
Asger sucked in an alarmed breath. “What was that?”
“Not what, who,” Casmir said. He had hoped to wait a while before introducing Qin, but they would have to get it out of the way now. Maybe Asger would be more reasonable than Casmir expected. “That is—”
Asger charged across the cargo hold, yanking his pertundo from its holder. He almost knocked Bonita over as he raced toward Qin.
“What the—” Bonita blurted, jerking her pistol from its holster. “Stop!” she cried, aiming at the back of Asger’s head.
Bewildered, Casmir lunged toward her and knocked her arm up. The bolt fired into the ceiling as Asger sprang out of sight around the corner.
A crack-thud emanated from the corridor, and Qin loosed a bellow that sounded half shriek of alarm and half battle cry. The thuds and clashes of battle rolled into the cargo hold.
Bonita threw Casmir a scathing look, then charged toward the fray.
“Zee,” Casmir yelled, “stop them. Don’t let them hurt each other.”
The crusher sprinted for the corridor, easily passing Bonita who ran with a limp, and sprang out of sight.
“And don’t hurt either of them!” Casmir yelled, running after Zee.
What was going on? Why had Asger re
acted so violently?
Casmir reached the corner at the same time as Bonita, who lunged around it, her pistol ready again.
“Don’t you have a stunner?” Casmir yelled, trying to bump her arm to keep her from firing the deadly weapon at anyone.
Cracks and bangs and thumps continued to sound, but Zee’s body blocked the view. Someone was backed halfway into the ladder well and fighting for his life. No, her life.
“Don’t you?” Bonita snarled, pushing him aside.
No, he only had his wits, and they weren’t doing any good.
Zee gripped Asger’s shoulder and pulled him back and hefted him in the air. Asger hollered, swinging with his pertundo. The axe edge of the halberd slammed into the bulkhead, digging deep, blue branches of electricity flaring around the head. Zee only pulled him farther back. The weapon almost came out of Asger’s grip, but he held on tightly and yanked it free.
The lights in the corridor flickered out, some electrical wire cut, but not before Casmir glimpsed a bewildered Qin crouching in a defensive posture, her fists up. She wasn’t even armed?
“Explain yourself, knight.” Casmir clenched a fist and glared at Asger.
Asger didn’t hear him. He snarled, twisted in the air, and slammed a boot into Zee’s torso, almost wrenching himself free. Zee’s grip tightened on his shoulder, and he didn’t let go. Asger drew his pertundo back to swing it at the crusher.
“No!” Casmir lunged forward, afraid the mysterious weapon would damage Zee.
The crusher was faster. He flung Asger away before the weapon could bite into his torso.
Asger twisted in the air, but he’d been thrown too hard and fast to manage to get his feet under him. He slammed into the deck, shoulder striking first. Qin lunged in from the opposite direction and snatched his halberd out of his grip.
“Stop!” Bonita yelled, waving her pistol.
“Everyone!” Casmir added.
Qin could have swung the weapon at Asger’s head and taken advantage of him being down, but she only skittered back, holding it defensively in front of her. Asger leaped to his feet, eyes blazing, chest heaving as he faced her. He took a single step toward her, but Zee came in from behind him, moving so quickly Asger didn’t have time to react. One robot arm wrapped around his body, pinning his arms to his sides, and Asger was hefted into the air again, his boots dangling above the deck.
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