“We’ve found the food synthesiser,” she said. “And what looks like a nest.”
He did look at her briefly then.
“Explain?” he said, returning his attention to me.
“It’d be better if you saw it yourself, sir,” López said.
The captain nodded. “Lead the way, Ms Price,” he ordered.
I winced.
Ratbag gave a little whine, which made me loosen my grip on him. And then with an enthusiastic yip, he wiggled himself free and took off running toward the centre of the computer room.
“How did she get a dog onboard?” López said quietly behind me.
“Privilege,” the captain replied making me sad.
I walked the entire way feeling like the captain was drilling nails into the back of my head. Ratbag had beaten us there and was excitedly jumping around, yapping at all the officers, and trying to show them what a good boy he was.
None of the officers standing around my pit paid him any attention. Their eyes were all for my…nest.
Captain Tremblay came to a stop beside the depression in the gel floor. He stared at all the pillows. At the neatly folded blanket. At the datapad lying innocuously off to the side. Finally, his eyes landed on the synthesiser.
For an extremely long time, he didn’t say a thing.
And then, “Care to explain, Ms Price?”
“It’s Adi,” I said.
He turned to look at me, a scowl marring his features.
“I think I’ll stick with Ms Price,” he said levelly. “The synthesiser?”
“It was here when I got here. As well as the pillows.”
“And the dip in the gel flooring?” he queried.
I nodded my head.
“This does not paint you in a good light,” the captain said.
“How so?” I asked.
“Aquila did this.”
“Before he went…rogue.”
“Are you sure?”
Could I be? I’d come here after he’d gone rogue. But he’d permitted me to use the computer core room as a hiding place before that. So, did the AI prepare this nest for me before my father did something to his processors?
“I think it was beforehand,” I said.
“You think?” the captain asked doubtfully.
I sighed. Glanced around at all the men. No one moved. The captain gave no orders. He wanted me to say what I had to say in front of them all. He wasn’t going to make this any easier for me. And how could I blame him?
I was Nathan Price’s daughter.
“I needed a place to hide,” I said, resigning myself to this public humiliation. “I asked Aquila where that would be. He offered me sanctuary here where he could protect me.”
“Why? Why you? Why here? And why did you need to hide?”
“My father,” I said, which in retrospect was the wrong thing to say to a bunch of officers who’d just fought their way out of their own brig, had three of their people killed and another gravely wounded, by my father’s men.
“I see,” the captain said unconvincingly.
“You don’t understand,” I rushed to say.
“I understand your father has taken over the ship, corrupted our AI, and killed people. And I understand,” he went on, “that you have a wrist comm that allows you unprecedented access to parts of said ship no one else does and a home within the computer core itself. How do you think that looks?”
“Not good,” I whispered.
“No. Not good.”
No one said anything for a while. And then the captain looked at his men.
“Zenith will take the watch,” he said. “The rest of you, use that synthesiser and get some rest. Commander López.” He sighed. “You have Nova.”
She blanched. And then nodded her head.
“Yes, Captain,” she said, turning to two of the men and indicating they should follow her.
They walked a short distance away and then huddled together. I thought perhaps I was watching something very personal. I looked away.
The captain’s eyes met mine.
“Walk with me, Ms Price,” he said.
It wasn’t an invitation. It was an order.
I swallowed my pride and followed the captain, all the while cursing my father.
Twenty
Welcome To Zenith
Hugo
Good God, did she have to look so fragile? So different from her profile pictures?
But how did she get in here? And how the hell did she come by a wrist comm that let her into all manner of places, including the brig; one of the most secured sections of our vessel?
None of this made sense, but I couldn’t seem to make myself condemn her. This was dangerous ground to tread. What if she were a trap set by Price himself? I tried to wrack my brain, to remember what I’d read about their relationship.
But the leaseholder was a very private man, and if he was rarely seen in public, his daughter was seen less so.
“How old are you?” I asked as we walked the circumference of the room. Johnson was down by where the hatch had opened up; standing guard. Armstrong was near the official door to the room. I couldn’t see either of them.
Aquila’s towers rose above us, high into the upper atmosphere of the computer core room. The heat was getting to me. The soft hum of fans cooling the electronics was grating on my nerves.
The thought that this was a trap made me sick to the stomach.
I tried not to think of Lieutenant Commander Munro.
“Twenty,” she said.
It was young. Older than I had thought, but not by much of a margin. Still, I could hardly talk; I was only twenty-nine. And the captain.
“Your father became the richest man in America twenty years ago,” I said.
“Did he?”
“Don’t be coy,” I snapped. “You know exactly who you are and where you’ve come from.”
“Fair point,” she murmured. She didn’t apologise, which I was thankful for.
She looked off into the distance. Not that there was much to see.
“I don’t remember back that far,” she said.
I arched my brow. “I suppose not,” I said.
“I’m not my father,” she offered a few moments later.
I let out a breath and stopped walking. Turning toward her, I looked down at her slight frame. Her small size did not help me to see her as anything other than someone to protect. But she was Price’s daughter.
“I don’t know what to do with you,” I admitted.
She looked up at me from under a crooked fringe of hair. The ends were a jagged, hacked at mess.
“Who the hell cut your hair?” I asked before I could think better of it.
Her hand came up and touched the end of a strand. She winced.
“I did,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want my father’s men to recognise me.”
I hadn’t recognised her. But was this an act?
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at her. Fascinating little creature, I thought. She met my gaze with a level one of her own. There was a wounded look to her. A haunted look. But she didn’t look away. She held steady.
“Tell me about the mayor,” I found myself saying.
She blinked. The look in her eyes now was one of repulsion.
“He’s my father’s toady,” she said, bitterness dripping off every word.
She was a fine little actor.
“My father doesn’t trust easily,” she said. “He believes people need to be motivated in order to give someone their loyalty. I guess he motivated the mayor by selling him me.”
“What do you mean selling him you?”
She wrapped her arms around her body. I gritted my teeth.
“The day before Aquila went rogue he kicked Ratbag.”
“Ratbag?”
“My dog.” I grimaced. That little thing could snap like a twig. I didn’t like the idea that she was the only one onboard any of the vessels to
be allowed to bring a dog along for the ride, but I didn’t wish ill upon the poor little thing. “He threatened to have Ratbag killed,” she went on. “I believed him. My father never says a thing he doesn’t mean. He made me agree to a business contract in order to protect Ratbag. That business contract ended up being a marriage agreement between the mayor and me.”
Fuck. That sucked. If it were the truth. But Jacob Logan was twice her age. And a creep.
“So, I went into hiding,” she said.
“Just like that?”
She looked directly at me, anger and frustration marring her petite features.
“My father is not a patient man, Captain. Nor is he forgiving. I took Ratbag and asked Aquila to hide us. And then came here.”
“After Aquila went rogue.” I was trying to work out the timeline here. Could she be telling the truth? It sounded so elaborate. But believing our AI would let a civilian passenger, albeit a VIP, have access to its computer core went against everything.
I guess that was the bottom line, really. It didn’t make sense. But I could hardly ask Aquila now, could I?
“Yes,” she said in answer to my last question. “I wasn’t sure how to find it, and until then, I’d wanted to stay near the habitats to see what was happening. That’s when I saw one of my father’s guards destroy my friend’s stall searching for me.”
Oh, this just got better and better. Could anyone really think up all these layers to their subterfuge? I guessed they could, but could this woman?
Nathan Price could, I was certain.
“When that happened, I started going deeper into the tunnels,” she said.
“The emergency access tubes,” I said. “About them. How did you know they were there?”
“There’re hatches everywhere,” she said. “It was pretty obvious.”
Now she was calling my bluff. I almost smiled.
“And you just…what? Pried them off with your fingernails?”
I looked down at said fingernails, expecting to see them painted and long just like in the top-tier newsfeeds. They weren’t. They were unvarnished and in most cases, bitten down to the quick.
A nervous habit that and not something I would have expected a socialite to do, even if trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the ship’s captain.
I watched as she pulled a screwdriver out of the back pocket of her trousers, tugging her shirt down again afterwards.
Now how the hell did she get that?
“Interesting,” I said.
“I bought it in Habitat Three,” she said. “It cost a hundred bucks.”
I bet it did. They saw her coming a mile off. But that wasn’t what was bothering me.
What was bothering me was this story was becoming more and more plausible. I didn’t want it to be plausible. Plausible meant she was a victim here as much as we were. And if that were the case, then I had no hope of resisting.
Small, fragile, dressed in rags and with a hacked at haircut; and a father that was a monster and did monstrous things.
I looked away abruptly. I felt the weight of her eyes on the back of my neck, making it itchy.
“What now?” she asked.
I thought perhaps she was asking me if I trusted her. Or if I’d lock her up and throw away the key. I didn’t know the answer to that. But I did know that she was important. And she might just be the answer to getting us out of this mess.
How much did her father want her back?
How far would that wrist comm she wore get us?
We’d left the merc’s wrist comms behind; they’d have been traceable. But either Adriana Price’s wrist comm was not traceable, or her father wasn’t concerned with where it was because she was deep undercover, working for him. Either way, I wanted that wrist comm, and I wanted to keep the threat in our midst close to me.
I turned back and looked down at her wrist.
She took a step away, her eyes warily watching me. Then, for good measure, she slowly put her arm behind her back. Purposefully.
My eyes met hers. She looked back at me.
“No,” she said.
And fuck me, but I couldn’t ignore that word. I couldn’t override it because if there was even a chance her story was true, others had overridden this woman’s objections before. And I couldn’t add to that injury.
“OK,” I said. “But you’re on my watch now, Ms Price. Welcome to Zenith.”
Twenty-One
I Would Show No Weakness
Adi
It sounded like a threat. And what the heck was Zenith?
“First off,” the captain said, “we need to get to Deck B and D.”
He looked at me. I blinked back at him.
“What’s there?” I asked.
“You don’t know?” He was testing me, I realised. I shook my head. “Medbay on Deck B. We have wounded, and I’d like to know what they’ve done to the doctor. And on Deck D, Ms Price…”
“Adi.”
“…are the AU crew. We need reinforcements.”
He waited as if he expected me to object. I said nothing.
“Come on,” he ordered, and turned on his heel, heading toward the centre of the room again.
The officers who I guessed were off duty were lounging around the pit. Some of them eating, some sleeping. Commander López was awake and stood as the captain got closer.
“As you were, Andrea,” he said.
“Sir.” She sat back down but didn’t recline as she had been. Her eyes shifted off her captain to me. “Interrogation over?” she asked.
“For now,” the captain said. I shifted uneasily on my feet.
“What’s the plan, sir?”
Tremblay went to the synthesiser and ordered up a cup of tea. He glanced at me. “Drink?” I shook my head. He shrugged, added sugar, and then took a seat opposite López.
“Medbay,” he said, flicking eyes towards the guy with the head injury.
López nodded. “We’re waking him hourly,” she advised. “But I’d kill for a medscanner.”
“You may get your wish, Commander.”
She grinned, it showed teeth.
“After that,” the captain said, sipping his tea, “Deck D.”
“Reinforcements.”
“Exactly. We’ve a resistance to start.”
“What about the civvies?” the commander asked.
“We might need their help later, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves for now. Medbay. Crew quarters. That’s enough to get us started.”
“How do you want to do this, sir?”
Tremblay looked at me. I shifted, wrapping my arms around my waist. Ratbag sat up, ears pricked. He was lying on the gel floor beside López, I realised. I thought perhaps she’d been feeding him scraps and offering ear scratches. He whined slightly, picking up on my distress.
I sat down and clicked my fingers. He trotted over and licked them happily.
I’m all right, I thought to him. The words were more for myself, I acknowledged silently.
“One watch rests,” the captain was saying. “One watch is on duty, guarding the entrances. One watch heads out with Ms Price to guide us.”
López and the captain both looked at me.
“And when does Ms Price get some rest?” the commander asked.
I liked her, I realised. It wasn’t the first time she’d looked out for me. I met her eyes and let her see my thanks. But I remained quiet. It was better if I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure the captain had believed a word I’d said so far. So why keep trying?
“This is my ship,” the captain said. He held up a hand when López went to say something. “I know it’s your ship, too, Andrea, but I’m the captain.”
“All the more reason for you to stay in here,” she snapped.
“Where it’s safe?” he asked dryly. He shook his head. “No. When I became captain, this ship became mine. Not in the usual way a captain comes to be in possession of a ship. There was no slow career progression. No ceremony as
an admiral handed over the keys. This is war, Commander. I’m a captain at war, and as such, I’ll play my part to the end, if I have to. This is my ship, and I intend to get it back for us.”
They stared at each other until finally, Commander López backed down.
“Still don’t like it,” she muttered.
Tremblay snorted. “They’re likely to take the damn rank off me when we reach New Earth anyway, López. Let me have some fun with it until then.”
“Yes, sir,” she said reluctantly.
“So, if you’ve had enough of a rest for now,” he said, “Nova has the watch. I’m getting us some meds and hopefully the doctor.”
“Nova’s ready,” she said, glancing at the two officers she’d huddled with earlier. They both sat up and nodded their heads.
“Pistols to those on watch and reconnoitering.”
“Reconnoitring,” López said. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Yep. The watch off duty has the mallet and steak knives.”
“What about me?” I asked. Then cringed. I should have kept quiet.
“Not a chance,” López said. So much for being in my corner.
But the captain simply pulled the filleting knife out and handed it to me.
“How much did you pay for this one?” he asked.
I took it and stared down at the blade. Had this already spilt blood? It was clean, thankfully.
“I stole this one,” I said. Then watched as he smiled.
Oh boy. That was some smile.
“All the more reason for you to have it, then,” he said.
“Captain,” López said, a warning in her voice.
“No,” he said, cutting off his officer. “She needs it.”
I smiled tentatively back at him.
And then he said, “Besides,” he tapped the pistol on his side, “I’ve got a gun. You know what they say about knives at a gunfight, right?”
“Watch out for the one that stabs you when you’re not looking?” López offered.
Tremblay let out a laugh. Then looked at me.
“Are you going to stab me in the back, Ms Price?”
“Adi,” I said. His smile softened slightly. “And no,” I added. But whether he believed me or not, I wasn’t sure.
Zenith Point (The Sector Fleet, Book 4) Page 11