Blaedergil's Host

by C. M. Simpson

  “He’s an idiot,” Doc added, as the line moved forward. “Can’t see how his own survival might be just a little bit more important than that of the rest of us—given he’s the captain of this boat.”

  The crew nearest us blushed, but kept moving forward, and I figured Doc might have earned the right to yank Mack’s chain. I didn’t know how to respond to that, but it was our turn, so I stepped forward just as Mack stepped back.

  Doc was frowning as the pods swung down in front of us, but I noticed he wasn’t arguing. I got into the one in front of me, and lay down, watching the lights in the corridor start to strobe as the lid slid shut. I figured Doc hadn’t argued because he knew how stubborn Mack could be, and we were almost out of time. I figured there’d be some words exchanged once we got back out, again.

  I might have wondered if Mack had made it, but stasis pods had just one function, and I was out not long after the lid had closed. When I woke up, Doc was looking down at me.

  “You okay?” he asked, and I wondered why I might not be—and then I registered the amber lighting in the corridor.

  “Hel...” I swallowed against the dryness in my throat, and tried again. “Help me out?”

  He did, and I looked around. The corridor looked perfectly okay, but the lights stayed amber.

  “What happened?”

  “They winged us. Mack’s directing the repair crews, now. Told me to come get you out.”

  “What’s he want done?”

  To be honest, ship’s repair wasn’t something I thought I could help with. Odyssey’s training just hadn’t covered it for me.

  “He wants you checked out and certified healthy before you relieve Tens on the comms.”

  “Tens is still on comms?”

  “And he needs to be on piloting, because Case needs a break.”

  “Don’t you have a second pilot?”

  “Not yet. We’ve added that to the ‘to-do’ list.”

  It sounded like a fair call to me. I wondered why they hadn’t done it before.

  “Never had a need. Tens could always pick up the slack.”

  “And he can’t now?”

  “Let’s just say his job’s gotten a little more complex.”

  He didn’t say it but I picked up on it anyway.

  “What. Since I came on board?”

  Doc didn’t answer that; he just smiled and offered me his arm.

  “The infirmary is this way,” he said.

  I hesitated only briefly, before slipping my metal hand through the crook of his elbow.

  “Lead on,” I said.

  The fact I could have walked myself to the infirmary by accessing the ship’s schematics was beside the point. Right now, knowing we’d been hit, and things were still interesting, it was nice to just walk beside someone, and know I wasn’t alone.

  I’d been alone a lot, both growing up and since I’d left home—and I figured that wasn’t going to change in my future, so I might as well enjoy the illusion while it lasted. If he could see that thought in the implant, Doc didn’t comment, just guided me to the infirmary and settled me into the scanner.

  “We might as well check all of you out while you are here,” he said, and then pointed at my new hand. “That is going to have to come off.”

  I felt my gut twist, but nodded.

  “Go for it, Doc. Just make sure it’s not going to explode first, okay?”

  I’d meant it as a joke, but the Doc didn’t take it that way.

  “Stay there,” he said, and moved over to a cabinet not far from where I lay. “Tens.”

  I wondered why he wanted Tens, but the answer was obvious when Tens replied. Someone was getting very good at riding unseen in my implant. I added it to the list of things I needed to fix, but paid attention to what Tens was saying.

  “Hand’s clear, Doc. Fortunately Corovan can’t match our girl in evil, twisted and fucking subtle.”

  Subtle? Well, that was new. I’d thought I was about as subtle as a brick in the face.

  “You’re that, too,” Tens told me, and Doc nodded, “but you can be sneaky when you need to be.”

  I figured I hadn’t been sneaky enough if he was still reading what I was thinking as it crossed my mind.

  “Yeah, well I’ll stop doing that when Mack says we can trust you not use that sneaky nature of yours to sneak your way off the ship, and get yourself killed.”

  I gave a heartfelt sigh at that, because the way I was feeling now, that might as well be never. Until I had a choice as to whether to go or stay, I was always going to be leaving—and Odyssey could jam any future job offers up its ass. Way they used coercion, the sooner I was free of them the better.

  Doc patted me on the shoulder.

  “They’re not all bad, girl. You’ve just seen them in more of a pinch than most. Normally they don’t push a person so hard. It’s why they still have Delight.”

  And before I could respond to that, he added, “Now, lie still, and let the machine do its work.”

  He tapped on the panel at the side of the machine, and I realized he’d been working on my hand while I’d been distracted. He set it carefully to one side of the scanner.

  “You’ll get it back as soon as this is done,” he said, “unless you want to go into a tank and grow a new one.”

  “Do we have time?” I asked, and Doc smiled.

  “No, but it’s one hell of a way to keep you out of trouble.”

  “Thanks, Doc. Talk to me about it later, okay?”

  I watched as the smile faded from his face.

  “Will do, Cutter. I’ll even see if there’s a way to avoid it being added to your bill.”

  “How about it being the employer’s responsibility to repair the damage caused when the mission goes south because they’ve fucked up the intel?”

  I thought I saw his eyebrows hit his hairline in shock, but the scanner was sliding down across me, and it blocked him too quickly from sight for me to be sure. I lay there and let my mind drift as lights of varying shades and intensities played over me. I even remembered to close my eyes, and wished Doc had remembered to give me the usual eye protection before hitting the switch.

  Still, it didn’t matter. I watched the play of light and shade across the inside of my eyelids, and slowly relaxed. For the first time in weeks, I felt safe. I wondered what Mack would say to that.

  “I’d say it was about fucking time.”

  I startled, opening my eyes, but was fortunate enough that the light was back to normal, and the scanner was sliding away from me. The feeling of security didn’t quite fade, but I sat up as soon as I could, reaching over with my good hand to grip my wrist just above where it ended. I watched Mack follow the movement, and saw the twist to his lips.

  “That’s my fault,” he said. “We’ll fix it as soon as we hit a quiet patch.”

  I gave him my most skeptical look.

  “We have quiet patches?”

  “You know we do,” he said, and I remembered the quiet patch that had led to me getting picked up by Odyssey.

  “And that’s not going to happen, again,” he said, and I couldn’t be sure if he meant me leaving the ship, Odyssey getting its hands on me, or what.

  I chose not to pursue it, but sat quietly, while Doc refitted the hand. I hadn’t realized I was staring at Mack, until he waved a hand in front of my face.

  “Credit for your thoughts?”

  I shook my head. My mind had been a complete blank for once. Instead of giving Mack an answer, I turned to Doc.

  “What’s your verdict, Doc?”

  He met my gaze, and then stepped back.

  “You’re in better condition than you have any right to be,” he said, and then fixed Mack with a hard stare, “but the implant needs another fortnight to be sure the connections have formed properly.”

  “She slugged me in front of the crew,” Mack said, but Tens intervened.

  “No, she didn’t, boss. I got them out of there, before she let fly.”

&
nbsp; “You were there.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t count.”

  Mack was silent long enough that I realized that Tens had a point. I wondered what the difference was between him and the rest of the crew, but Doc was quick to fill the gap.

  “So, no mat time required,” he said, and turned to me, “which makes you more fortunate than you deserve, given just how good a hit that was.”

  The look on my face must have said it all because he went on to explain.

  “You’re not the only one I fitted a monitor to. Mack was knocked about by your little excursion to Costral, too.”

  My excursion? So, it was my fault? I was about to point out exactly whose fault it was, when Mack stepped in.

  “That was my little excursion, Doc.” Mack’s eyes flicked to the metal hand. “And the proximity bracelet was mine, too. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I wanted her coming back.”

  Given I had been planning on ditching him on Costral, there really was nothing I could say to that, so I didn’t say anything. I just eased myself off the scan table, and looked to Doc.

  “Is there anything else, Doc?”

  “Yeah,” Doc said. “You’re to report to Mack, when I’m done.”

  I looked over at where Mack stood.

  “So, boss...” I started, but Tens interrupted before I could go any further.

  “They’ve found us,” and then he added in aside not meant for us, “Stand down, Case. You’ve done what you can.”

  Mack cut across him.

  “Clear the bridge. Case, get some rest. You did well to buy us this much time. Tens, stay right there. Cutter and I will be up shortly.”

  I glanced back at Doc, but he was looking to Mack.

  “Any injuries?” and I understood he wasn’t asking if Mack was hurt, but if there was anyone else on the crew who needed him.

  “In the infirmary,” Mack told him. “They’ll need you there.”

  And Doc was gone, brushing right past Mack and me like we were no longer important. When we were the only ones in the scan bay, Mack turned to me.

  “You coming, Cutter?” he asked, and then he offered me his arm, much the same way Doc had done.

  I hesitated, not sure whether to take it or not, but it seemed churlish to refuse, so I slid my good, right hand through his elbow, and walked with him into the corridor.

  “What kind of trouble do we have?” Mack asked, and, when Tens replied, it was for our ears alone.

  “Skymander brought a battle ship.”

  “The hell he did.”

  “I’m not sure how he traced us, but he followed us through the first three hard burns, before we lost his fleet, and then we did another two before Engineering told us we’d lose the ship if we tried a sixth.” Tens sighed, and then added, “I thought we were out from under, boss, but...”

  “You were,” Mack said. “He’s just got more contacts than we realized. What else is out there?”

  “A squadron of light fighters.”

  “So, no running then.”

  “We couldn’t if we tried. Engineering would have our balls.”

  “Not if we blew the ship up,” but even Mack sounded tired.

  I caught the movement of his hand as he raised it to cover his eyes, and then drew his fingers together to pinch the bridge of his nose.

  “Are they hailing?”

  Oh, by the stars, I hoped so.

  “Not yet,” Tens said, “but I’ve got Engineering to cut power to the drive. If we’re lucky they’ll see that as a sign we’re willing to talk.”

  “Let’s hope they’re in the mood.”

  “We’ve been in range of their missiles for the last standard hour,” Tens told him. “They could have had us if they wanted.”

  That might have been the case, but just because they hadn’t fired, didn’t mean they wouldn’t. I kept that thought firmly to myself, and, if Mack and Tens saw it, they chose not to comment.

  Mack and I headed for the command deck, and hoped.

  Tens was waiting when we got there.

  18—Skymander Calls

  “What happened to Delight?” I asked as we waited for the comms to go live.

  I’d been almost to the door, before I remembered Delight had gone down to Blaedergil’s complex with us. She’d diverted from her planned alternative at the spaceport, when she’d realized Skymander wasn’t going to land there. Mack glanced at me, as though he hadn’t thought of Delight since we’d gotten off Magnus 19. It looked like a complication he hadn’t been expecting.

  “I’ll have Tens look into it,” he said, as the command center door slid open.

  Tens’ reply of “On it,” came through in both the implant and our ears.

  Once the door had slid shut behind Mack and me, Tens indicated the view screen.

  “There she is,” he said, and he did not mean Delight.

  Our ship was hanging, dead, in space. Not drifting, per se, but doing the star-bound version of exactly that. I stared where Tens pointed, and saw the slowly clarifying silhouette of something big moving towards us. Whatever it was, it was partially outlined by the gleam of its drives, but still near-impossible to get a good look at.

  Tens used the scans to outline it, so we could observe its slowly approaching bulk. I didn’t find it helpful when he highlighted the weapons arrays, or the swarm of smaller vehicles surrounding it.

  “We are so screwed.”

  Mack’s lips twitched, and he moved to the command console, and settled in behind it.

  “You know anything useful here?”

  I remembered my time with Keevers.

  “Security?”

  Mack shook his head, but indicated a console, anyway.

  “Weapons. See what you can do with that, but don’t shoot them by accident.”

  Tens snorted, but his attention was focused on the console and screen in front of him. I figured he was looking for Delight, so I ignored him and set about familiarizing myself with the console before me. I was sorely tempted to play with the weapons array, and see what happened, but even I knew that might be a bad idea. There was no telling how the incoming battleship would react.

  I ran through the functions, and felt Tens presence in my head.

  “Here,” he said, and sent me the knowledge I required.

  I’d heard of teaching programs, which just wired the signals into a brain while the person slept. I hadn’t known an implant could be used to do more than pass files. When I’d allowed Tens’ program to unwrap, I found I knew what I’d wanted to know, and took my hands away from the controls.

  Best not to play with that.

  I had a moment of vertigo, as everything settled into place, and closed my eyes until it was done. When I opened them again, the ship on the view screen was a lot bigger—and a hell of a lot easier to see.

  “Dawn,” Tens murmured. “Case had us in the planet’s shadow.”

  And I realized our ship was drifting with a planet at its back, and that we might not be drifting at all; we might be sinking. I pushed the idea away, and turned my attention to Skymander’s approaching war ship. It was both easier and harder to look at with the sunlight refracting from its hull.

  Also easier to see was the myriad swarm of much smaller shadows holding station around it.

  “That can’t be good,” Tens said, but Mack remained silent.

  When I shot a glance in his direction, he was sitting perfectly still, staring at the ship on the screens before us. Just before I looked away, he glanced down at his console, his fingers moving over its surface in response.

  “Not long, now,” he murmured, and then raised his voice, just a little, “Tens, what did you find on Delight?”

  “I don’t think she made it off Magnus,” and my own console lit up, as he pushed the data to where I could see it.

  Oh. To use his words, that couldn’t be good.

  Delight hadn’t made it off world. Not according to Odyssey, and not according to the Magnus 19 passenger manife
sts Tens had hacked out of their transport databases. As far as we could tell, she’d hit Blaedergil’s mansion, with Pritchard, and neither of them had ever come out again.

  “Maybe Skymander had his people collect them,” I said, and didn’t like the thin thread of doubt that wound itself through my tones.

  “That would be the best scenario,” Mack said. “I’ll add them to the list of things I want from Skymander.”

  Tens was not happy.

  “It will give him something else to bargain with.”

  Mack shrugged.

  “We need to get her back.”

  He didn’t say why, and I had to wonder if it was because he was used to dealing with her when he dealt with Odyssey, and just didn’t want to get used to dealing with someone else, or if it was because he was secretly fond of her, kindred spirits and all that.

  “I miss Pritchard,” he said, answering the questions rolling through my mind.

  Yeah. Like fuck he did. Pritchard was the invisible man.

  “Hence why I like him.”

  “So, it’s got nothing to do with the fact he keeps Delight in check?” Tens wanted to know, but whatever Mack might have said in reply was lost as the ship signaled an incoming call.

  He glanced over at Tens.

  “Put it up,” he said. “Let’s take a look at this joker.”

  I have to admit that Treivani’s face was the last thing I expected to see, when the call went live.

  She was holding two carefully swaddled bundles, and I wondered why. She still looked as pale as she had when I last saw her at Blaedergil’s, but there was now a faint tinge of color to her skin, and the shadows under her eyes were fading. She was sitting on a long, low-backed couch, wearing a loose, blood-red gown that flowed around her. Behind her the stars formed a backdrop through a meters-wide observation port.

  I saw Mack glance at Tens, and watched as the comms-tech’s hands flew over his console as he tried to find where on the battle ship Treivani was located. Personally, I didn’t trust what I was seeing. For all we knew, that backdrop was just another projection, and she was secreted deep in the hull of the cruiser heading towards us.