Gate Quest (Star Kingdom Book 5)

by Lindsay Buroker

  “I assumed we were considering her an ally,” he said. “I did speak with her.”

  “About how we don’t run a library?”

  “I gave her the specs on my engines and also told her about my vacuums. She looked at one curiously.”

  “More likely, she almost tripped over one.” Bonita waved for Qin to follow her and headed to the storage cabinet where she’d stuffed Johnny’s duffel.

  Qin imagined her tossing it through the airlock tube, disconnecting the freighter, and taking off.

  Which was fine. They’d done their duty in answering the distress call and taking the injured people aboard, but Qin couldn’t help but feel they were leaving Johnny to die and the androids to be destroyed. Even if Johnny was a knight, he couldn’t fight off a boarding party all on his own. Not against a crew as large as Amazing had, men who would be armed and armored. Johnny didn’t even have a galaxy suit, much less armor of his own.

  “Do you think we should help them defend against the smugglers?” Qin asked as Bonita pulled the duffel out and hoisted it onto her shoulder.

  “Not with my ship. Absolutely not.”

  “You could take the Dragon someplace safe and leave me to either help Johnny or club him over the head if he’s lying and plans to betray Kelsey-Sato and Beaumont.”

  Bonita sighed and dropped the bag to look at her. “Qin, your noble streak is wonderful, and it’s good that you want to help people, but this is so far from being our fight that it might as well be taking place in another galaxy. You could be hurt or killed if you battle those men, and there’s not even any reason to. There’s a Kingdom warship coming, right?”

  “Yes, but it won’t arrive until twelve hours after the smugglers get here, men who could be in and out, killing everyone and taking everything, in that time.”

  “All the warship will have to do is yell some threatening comm messages to them to get them to knock it off. Nobody wants to risk the Kingdom’s ire.”

  “Are you sure, Captain? This isn’t their system, and someone already did risk their ire to attack their research ship.”

  Bonita took a deep breath. “Qin, it’s not our fight. I’ve already snubbed Captain Amazing twice when we were competing for the same bounties. If I annoy him again, he might make it his life’s mission to hunt me down.”

  “I’m not asking you to stay and help, Captain. You have to get these people to safety. I’m asking if I should stay to help Johnny—Bjarke—Toes—whoever.” Qin shrugged.

  “Toes. I told you, we’re using nicknames to keep these people straight.”

  Qin refused to call Kim’s mother Furry Sato.

  “If you stay behind, and you’re lucky enough to survive, you’ll end up getting picked up by that Kingdom ship. Assuming they don’t hang you out to get sucked into the nearest black hole. I can’t stick around for Amazing to shoot at, especially not now that I’m obligated to take these refugees to a station.”

  “I know. I wouldn’t expect you to. But if Johnny is who he says he is, he’ll need help. If he’s lying… I’d regret it if something happened to Kim’s mother when I could have helped.”

  Bonita opened her mouth, but Viggo spoke first.

  “There’s a comm for you in navigation, Bonita.”

  “Is it anyone I’ll want to talk to?” she asked.

  “I’m unable to discern that with the information I currently have.”

  “I guess that means it’s not Captain Amazing.” Bonita climbed the ladder to the top level.

  Qin, not done arguing her side, followed, though Bonita had raised a valid concern. Qin could risk her life helping the Kingdom people, as she had after that temple bombing in their capital, and the soldiers on that warship might still try to shoot her because she was genetically modified. Or a freak, as they would call her.

  Johnny’s face was on the display when they walked into navigation. Judging from the dim background behind him, computer panels dark aside from a few emergency indicators, he’d moved from sickbay to the bridge.

  Bonita’s grunt sounded more irritated than indicative of a desire to talk to him. “What do you want, Toes?”

  He arched his eyebrows. “Did your helpful assistant not inform you that my full name had been revealed?”

  “She did. Even if that’s really your name, I’ve decided to continue calling you Johnny Twelve Toes to avoid confusion with the Sir Asger we already know.”

  “And here I thought my real name might intrigue you.”

  “Asger?”

  “Bjarke. It means bear in the language of my ancestors.”

  “I’m indifferent to bears. They’re not commonplace on spaceships or stations.”

  “Fortunate since they’re powerful and ferocious. I will send you some video footage of the ones on Odin, should I survive the next day.”

  “I’ll look forward to it. What do you want?”

  “Other than my bag of weapons and underwear, which I assume you have no need of, I wish to inform you that I’ve transferred the remaining eight thousand crowns to your bank account.” He bowed, his head dipping out of view, since whatever camera he was using didn’t follow him. “I hope that our paths cross again one day and that I can show you why I’m called bear. Especially in bed.”

  He winked and closed the channel.

  Bonita flopped into the pilot’s pod and gripped her chin.

  “I’ll take his bag over,” Qin said, “assuming you don’t mean to deny him his underwear.”

  “I would never deny a man the insulation he uses to keep his grenades safe.”

  “You’re talking about the smoke grenades in the bag, right?”

  Bonita smirked, but it was fleeting. “I’m checking my bank account.”

  Qin paused, not sure if she was supposed to wait. If Johnny hadn’t transferred the money, would Bonita want to withhold the bag?

  “It’s there. Plus five thousand more.” Bonita made a fist and dropped it on the console, appearing far more irritated than pleased by this tip. “What’d he do that for? I didn’t even take him all the way to Tiamat Station.”

  Qin didn’t know what to say. If Johnny truly was the knight he said he was, and he belonged to the nobility and had an estate, maybe an extra five thousand meant little to him. If he wasn’t who he said… why, indeed, would he have done that? To throw her off?

  “Maybe we should put some of your leftover soup in a container for him so he has something to eat while he’s fighting,” Qin suggested. “And maybe I should take it over personally with extra weapons from the armory. And myself.” She smiled, though she doubted this would have changed Bonita’s stance on whether Qin should stay to help.

  “Viggo?” Bonita asked, not looking at Qin. “You can fly yourself by yourself, right?”

  “What an odd thing to ask. Of course I’m fully capable of flying myself. And requesting permission to dock at a station and transfer passengers. I’d have to tell the port authority to deduct the docking fee from your account, but that’s also not a problem, since I often shop for new parts and make purchases using your banking information.”

  “No kidding.”

  It took Qin a moment to understand what they were talking about. “Captain, you’re coming with me? To defend the research ship?”

  “Someone with marksmanship skills has to keep you two from being overrun. For all we know, Bear over there might not be able to hit the broad side of a mining ship.”

  “From what I’ve read, knights go through extensive combat training and academic exams before they’re granted knighthood. I’m guessing shooting is included.”

  “I’m guessing all they have to be able to do is cleave people’s heads off with their big axes.” Bonita pushed herself to her feet. “Come on. Let’s check the armory.” She waved at the bag Qin had been dragging around. “Take that. If Toes gets scared and has an accident, we want to make sure he has fresh underwear.”

  “I’m sure that doesn’t happen to knights, Captain.”

 
“You were sure they were all noble and defended a lady’s honor, too, and Asger tried to kill you the first time you met. And Toes kidnapped us.”

  “Only after we deceived him.” Qin didn’t defend Asger, since he had been an ass the first few weeks she’d known him, but he’d changed once he’d gotten to know her. Now he was… a good fighting partner. Maybe a friend.

  “Toes deserved deceiving. What a blockhead.”

  As Bonita headed for the ladder well, Qin smiled. Even though this wasn’t likely a wise career move for either of them, she had seen Bonita’s fine marksmanship on display numerous times and thought the odds would be better with her along. It might still only be three to twenty, or however many men Amazing brought over, but that was better than two to twenty.

  Casmir sat in the last row of seats, alternating between trying to sleep and using his chip to check for the presence of nearby networks. It was likely they would be almost on top of the base before he detected anything, but he wanted as long as possible to study it and try to find a way in. He feared the astroshaman network would be much harder to access than Tiamat Station’s had been, but he told himself not to psych himself out before he even tried. Just because Moonrazor was educated and intelligent didn’t mean she’d been the one to set up the network.

  Asger came and sat in the empty seat next to him. “You still look like hell. You should be napping.”

  “I’ve been trying. Sleep is elusive.” Casmir waved to the water bottle he’d claimed. He’d finished his fizzop and switched to the more boring beverage, in case his body needed a more natural replenishment. He was sweating, fevered, and felt a little indignant that nobody else was, but since the troops had to fight the astroshamans, it would be better if they were in good form.

  Assuming they did have to fight. Why was everyone so eager to start a war over this gate? And so certain that he was naive for wanting to share it with everyone? A crazy part of him wanted to try to contact Moonrazor and send her a message offering a trade. Maybe if she would be willing to give up half the gate, that would be enough for everyone who wanted one to have a piece to study.

  “You need a woman to cuddle with you and take care of you,” Asger suggested.

  Casmir thought of Oku, weeks away, and wondered if she would cuddle a man and take care of him. Bring him comic books and fizzop when he was sick. Or did royalty pay the staff to handle that?

  “Kim is the only woman on this sub,” Casmir said. “My odds would be better of getting Zee to cuddle with me.”

  “I’m not going to argue against that. Besides…” Asger leaned into the aisle to look toward the closed hatch to navigation. “I think she may be cuddling Rache.”

  “Don’t say that. I’m already nauseated. And I’m sure it’s not true. She doesn’t cuddle anyone.”

  “If you say so.”

  Casmir closed his eyes and checked for a network again. Anything was better than imagining Kim doing anything other than talking with Rache. Even private talks were worrisome. What if word got back home?

  A network signal popped up on Casmir’s chip. It disappeared as soon as it arrived, making him wonder if he’d imagined it, but it was more likely that they were coming into range.

  “It would be mishegas to send a message to Moonrazor and try to make a deal with her, right?” Casmir had mentioned this back on the Osprey, but hadn’t seriously entertained it. As the other people around the briefing table had suggested, it was unlikely any contact information for the astroshamans that he could dig up would get him a direct line to her.

  “I don’t think there’s a deal you could offer her that Jager would approve of,” Asger said.

  “I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but I’ve been doing a lot of things Jager wouldn’t approve of. So there’s a precedent.”

  “I’ve noticed,” Asger said glumly. “Which is why it’s insane that I’m sitting next to you. I should be avoiding you like the plague.”

  “And here I’ve been polite and tried not to breathe in your direction.”

  The network signal popped up again. Casmir tried to hop on to it, found it secured, and started his hacking programs running. He’d downloaded a couple of new ones on the way to the moon, one supposedly coded by an astroshaman. Maybe it would have a good chance of getting onto a secure astroshaman network.

  “Here comes the other bad influence in my life right now.” Asger waved toward the aisle. “I can’t tell if he looks freshly cuddled. Do you think he does that with the mask on?”

  “Would you mind if we didn’t contemplate my best friend cuddling heinous criminals?”

  Rache arrived in time to hear that, resting a hand on the back of the seat ahead of Asger. “I need to talk to Dabrowski. Go polish your axe.”

  “It’s a halberd,” Asger said coolly.

  “I know. Extendable up to eight feet, four-point-six pounds in weight, made of a reputedly indestructible alloy, and infused with chaotic crackle-energy, as the knight technical manual calls it. Go find a place to polish it.”

  Asger glared at Rache’s masked face, but he must have remembered that he was surrounded by Rache’s mercenaries, because his defiance didn’t last.

  He rose, saying, “I’ll check on Kim to make sure she wasn’t horribly maimed and scarred in the interrogation session you were supposedly running up there.”

  “It’s possible she’s both, though only emotionally. I was telling her about my past.”

  “I bet that’s a fun tale.”

  “It’s delightful. If you don’t move, I’ll share it with you, including the part where I started on the path toward becoming a heinous criminal by slaying an arrogant knight who wouldn’t get out of my seat.”

  “I’m quivering with fear.”

  “Don’t wet yourself. I want to get my damage deposit back on the sub.”

  “I’ll fall on my own pertundo if you paid a single crown to rent these.” Asger curled his lip in disgust and stepped into the aisle. “Let me know if he bothers you, Casmir. I’ll come back and grind my halberd on his helmet.”

  Casmir waved away Asger. He was watching his programs at work, the data scrolling rapidly down his contact interface.

  Asger bumped shoulders hard with Rache as he passed—Rache didn’t budge, despite being much shorter. He barely reacted at all. He was looking at something farther back in the submarine.

  “Do you want to threaten to grind something on me, too, or can I sit down?” Rache asked.

  “Who are you talking to?” Casmir wondered if he could sling a leg into the empty seat and forbid anyone from sitting there.

  “Your crusher is glaring at me.”

  “I have no need to sharpen anything,” Zee stated from behind the passenger area. “I can easily create a sharp edge by manipulating my structure on the molecular level. Casmir Dabrowski will inform me if he wishes me to attack you, but I have observed that you have ceased to project a threatening body language with him.”

  “Don’t announce that, eh? It’s bad for my villainous image.” Rache sat beside Casmir. “We’re almost there.”

  “I know,” Casmir said.

  “I need you to—”

  “I’m working on it.” Casmir rubbed his gritty eyes, longing to be in his bed back home with his mother puttering around downstairs making chicken soup. She always swore it could cure any ailment. Maybe Oku would visit if he looked particularly pitiful and promised to let her dog sleep on his bed.

  “Hacking into the network?”

  “Seeing if it’s possible, yes.”

  “Your eyes are glazed.”

  Casmir grimaced as an alarm bonged in his mind. He cut his chip off from the network, and errors of indignation popped up as the programs running informed him they’d lost connectivity.

  “No kidding,” he muttered to them and pulled up an antivirus program that he hoped was up to snuff.

  He’d had Tork help modify it based on the code they’d used on Moonrazor’s other virus. Would it be enough? He ha
d it scan everything, and it spotted an intruder file lurking in a dark corner. He definitely hadn’t downloaded that himself.

  Aware of Rache looking at him, Casmir said, “The network tried to give me a virus for trying to get on it. Or simply for being here.”

  “One of the Kingdom subs destroyed a monitoring buoy on their perimeter. The astroshamans may not be happy with us.”

  “They may attack with more than viruses soon. Make sure the subs are running with their wireless receivers off, and everyone should take their chips offline. There’s no connectivity with the system down here anyway. I’d close all of the subs’ comms too.”

  “We need to be able to communicate with the rest of our team.”

  “They attacked us over the comm back in System Lion. It shut down the Osprey. Almost permanently.” Casmir worried they would run into something equally dangerous here. There had to be a reason the inhabitants of System Hydra were aware this place existed but never came here to explore the moon’s oceans.

  “Right. I’ll send some final orders and then have everyone turn off the comms. Let me know if you’re able to get into the network. Anything we could do to distract and harass Moonrazor’s people would be useful.”

  “I know, I know.”

  Rache tilted his head. “You’re much snippier than usual.”

  Casmir slumped in his seat. “I’m sorry. I’m not feeling well.”

  “Sir,” came a call from navigation. “We’ve got some activity ahead.”

  Kim appeared in the aisle. Rache vacated his seat, heading toward the front, and she sat next to Casmir. She frowned and rested a hand on his forehead.

  “I must look truly awful if you’re touching me,” he said.

  She lowered her hand. “I composed a message to Dr. Sikou, asking about that stabbed body, but it won’t go out unless we go under a shallow spot in the ice and get some connectivity with the ships up there.”

  “I just told Rache to order everyone to turn off their chips, so the astroshamans can’t attack us that way. You should too.”

  She hesitated, then said, “All right.” She was watching him, studying him.