“Not interested in anything I have?” Bjarke lifted his eyebrows. “Dear Laser, I’d hoped that absence would make the heart grow fonder, not make the heart forget.”
“Where have you been?”
“Being usurped into a mind-numbing hierarchy of Kingdom problems. I regret that I can’t make my absence up to you by inviting you to a nice dinner tonight—you say you haven’t been getting desserts?—but I’m being ordered to take Professor Beaumont down to the moon to stage a rescue mission and try to get him to the gate.”
“You have a submarine?” Kelsey-Sato asked.
“The captain of the Osprey has two left. We’re shuttling over to head down with his team.”
“You should take me,” Kelsey-Sato said. “My daughter is down there.”
“And me,” Qin said. “My friends are down there.”
Bjarke regarded them and then Bonita, who was still doing her stretches.
“Don’t look at me,” she said. “I don’t want to pick a fight with astroshamans.”
“Viggo would be disappointed if you didn’t volunteer to rescue Casmir,” Qin pointed out.
Bjarke lifted a hand. “I’m afraid I’m not taking volunteers. I’m not in charge of the mission.”
“Then what are you doing here?” Kelsey-Sato crossed her arms and glared up at him.
“I came to see Laser.”
“Who?” Kelsey-Sato asked.
“That’s me. And I’d prefer it if you not point out how unlikely a nickname that is for an old lady doing stretches on the floor.”
“You’re not old,” Bjarke said before Kelsey-Sato spoke. “And it’s clear that you’re doing those stretches for me. So that you’ll be limber when we… compare toes.”
“If you’d wanted to compare toes, you could have visited last night. Or the night before.”
“I was dragged into meetings. And I had roommates.” He quirked an eyebrow at Kelsey-Sato. “As did you.” He extended a hand toward Qin. “Perhaps we shouldn’t have let that sergeant figure out the accommodations.”
“I’m a perfectly acceptable roommate,” Kelsey-Sato said.
“You don’t sleep. Neither does Beaumont. You share snippets of what you’re reading with each other aloud.”
“So? We’re academics.”
“You share snippets of what you’re reading with each other aloud all night. And giggle about it.”
“I’m certain that’s more civilized than whatever you and Laser would have been doing all night.”
“Bjarke…” Qin wasn’t sure if she should call him that since he hadn’t invited her to use his first name—or real name—but she refused to sir knight him. “I’m a good fighter. You should take me. We heard some of our friends were kidnapped. I’d like to help retrieve them. I’m as useful to have along as any Kingdom soldiers. I’m sure of it. And I could keep an eye on Scholar Kelsey-Sato if she goes.”
“I don’t need anyone keeping an eye on me. I’m much older than I look, I’ll have you know.”
“I meant to protect you.”
“Like a bodyguard?” Kelsey-Sato looked Qin up and down.
“Yes.”
“I’ve never had a bodyguard. I accept your offer.”
Bjarke pushed his hand through his hair. “Laser…”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Tell them they’re not coming.”
“You can take them with you, or when the Dragon gets here, we can randomly show up and get in the way of your mission.” This time, Bonita didn’t point out the lack of a submarine in the freighter.
“I don’t have the authority…” Bjarke started.
“Sure you do. You’re a knight, right? Just walk up with them at your side, say they’re your assistant squires and there to hold your weapons. You’re taking more than that to deal with Rache, aren’t you?” Bonita waved at his rifle and pistol. “He’s cybernetically enhanced.”
“You can’t have a monkey for a squire. Or a, a—” Bjarke waved at Qin, and she folded her arms over her chest, waiting for the descriptor he would settle on. “Girl.”
“No girls or monkeys allowed?” Bonita asked. “How ever is the Kingdom going to get past its primitive backward ways if only male humans can become squires?”
“May I speak with you alone? I only came to say goodbye to you in case your ship arrived and you left before I’m done down there.”
“You can speak with me alone if you agree to take them.” Bonita smiled sweetly at him and shifted into a new stretch that managed to thrust her breasts outward. Impressive, considering they were leg stretches.
Judging by the direction his eyes shifted, Bjarke noticed. “I’m not in charge.”
“Squires, my dear pirate.” Bonita pushed herself to her feet and offered her hand. “Tell anyone who objects that they’re along to carry your weapons.”
“My weapons aren’t that heavy.” Bjarke walked forward and accepted her hand.
“No? Don’t disappoint me before I’ve even seen your armory.” She headed for the door next to the built-in chest of drawers.
“Where are we going?”
“You wanted to speak in private. I’m taking you to the only private place in this cabin large enough to fit you.”
They stepped into the lavatory together, and the door closed.
“I’m going to pack a few things. You should too.” Qin waved to Kelsey-Sato, who wore no clothes, and realized she probably didn’t need personal items. Or even hygiene items. “Whatever you’ll need to work on the gate.”
“You think he’s going to let us go after they have sex?” Kelsey-Sato asked.
“I don’t think they’re going to have sex. I think they’ll kiss now, then he’ll agree to take us, and then they’ll have sex when we all come back alive.”
Kelsey-Sato eyed the door. “How can you be so sure?”
“Well, I’ve been in that lavatory. It’s very compact. Isn’t yours?”
“I don’t know. Androids don’t use the lavatory.”
“Handy.”
“I’ve found it to be so.”
Several minutes passed, long enough for Qin to gather her meager belongings and wonder if they were having sex. When the door opened and they walked out, Bonita wore a playful smirk and Bjarke a determined expression.
“Come, squires,” he said and strode to the corridor. “I’ll see if I can talk the captain of the Osprey into sending you down with us.”
Bonita patted Qin on the shoulder before she walked out. “Good luck. Don’t feel bad about shooting Rache if you get the chance.”
“Thank you. I’m just going to worry about protecting Kelsey-Sato and finding our friends.”
“Nothing wrong with shooting people while you do that.”
“You give such quality advice, Captain.”
“It’s because I’m mature and wise.”
As Qin and Kelsey-Sato followed Bjarke into the corridor, Kelsey-Sato said, “We don’t really have to carry his weapons for him, do we? I’m strong but not large. I find long things unwieldy.”
“I’ll carry his weapons if you polish his armor,” Qin said.
“Polish what?”
“It’s one of the duties of squires. I’ve read a number of books about knights.” Admittedly, they had been fairy tales, most of them taking place in centuries long past. “We’ll also need to fetch his meals and remove his boots at the end of the day.”
Qin doubted a modern knight would truly wish that, but it was a task that would allow her to give an answer to the toe question Bonita was so curious about.
Kelsey-Sato pursed her lips. “I hope my daughter appreciates what I’m going through to help her.”
“I thought you were going down to help with the gate.”
“Yes, but it would also please me to make sure my daughter is safe.”
“She will be,” Bjarke said from ahead of them. “If I have to strangle Rache with my bare hands, she will be. We’ll recover all of the kidnap victims.�
��
Qin didn’t say anything, but she thought about how many people on her side were gunning for Rache and wondered what Casmir would think. She also wondered if they would end up so busy fighting Rache’s mercenaries that the astroshamans would take advantage and kill them all.
17
As faint vibrations emanated through the submarine from explosives detonating somewhere in the compound, Yas paced and doubted himself. He’d been asked if he wanted to go along with the incursion team, and he’d opted to stay behind. Had Rache been disappointed? It hadn’t been possible to tell through the mask, but now that he’d had time to think about it, Yas was disappointed in himself.
With all those explosions going off, it seemed impossible that the men weren’t being injured—or worse. And what was he doing? Nothing. All of his years of education and experience, and he was back here looking at the whales painted on the ceiling.
Fear had kept him here, fear and a certainty that he, as a non-combat specialist, would get himself shot out there. But Rache would have protected him if he’d gone. He would have done his best. And Yas might have kept men alive. That was his job, not twiddling his thumbs and—
“Yas.” Kim leaned out of her seat, glanced toward the pilot and corporal in navigation, and waved for him to come join her. She scooted over to the next seat to make room.
“Are you feeling as useless as I am?” he asked.
“Yes. I’ve been considering if there’s anything I can do to improve Casmir’s chances of living long enough to get back to the ship for treatment.”
“If he doesn’t get a blood sample from Rache—”
“I told him to ask for one. If Rache doesn’t want me to punch him in the nose next time we meet, he’ll give one.”
Yas started to smile at the idea, but he remembered that Kim was capable and had fighting experience. Maybe she could get a punch in.
“You told Casmir? You’re able to communicate with him?”
“We had one quick conversation.” Her tone turned dry. “He hacked my chip and turned it on.”
“He’s on their network, then?”
“Wreaking havoc, I gather.”
“I’ll hope the men are doing better than I thought then. I’ve been worried that I shouldn’t have stayed behind. I should have gone to help Rache, the men, Casmir… everybody in need of a doctor.”
Kim eyed him. “I’m a little surprised you didn’t stay on Tiamat Station. You don’t seem to be the head-into-battle-with-shrapnel-flying-everywhere type.”
“I’m not. But I owe Rache. I’m surprised you didn’t stay on Odin. You don’t seem the trail-along-with-the-military-and-follow-orders type.”
“I’m not, but Royal Intelligence insisted I go.” Kim turned in her seat to face him squarely. “And as long as I’m down here, I want to do something.”
“What?”
She glanced toward navigation again, and wariness crept over Yas. Why did he suspect those two men wouldn’t approve of whatever she had in mind?
“Time is of the essence,” Kim said, “and the most direct way out of here isn’t going to be the way we came. It took hours of travel to get here.”
Yas lifted his gaze toward the ceiling and all the ice above them. “Are you thinking up?”
“Yes. If we could break open a hole in the ice above us, the Kingdom ships might be able to get reinforcements down here to help them and retrieve us more easily. At the least, we might be able to get comm messages out.”
“Are you planning to break up the ice with bacteria?”
She snorted. “I wish. In my lab back home, we do have a couple of strains of photosynthetic bacteria from the Phormidesmis genus that decreases the albedo of ice and transfers more solar power into it so it melts faster, but even if I could alter them to thrive in the atmosphere up there, it would take decades for them to worry a hole in a sheet of ice that thick. I have a more direct and more prosaic method in mind.”
“Explosives?”
“Yes. Any idea how many torpedoes are left on this sub?”
“No, and Kim… You can’t start detonating explosives above the base when our men are inside. What happens if the ice plummets down and crushes them?”
“Not above it. Adjacent to it. We’d need to convince the pilot to move us out of the harbor here, or step aside so we can move the sub out ourselves, and then we’d also need to have enough torpedoes. Gravity would be against us firing from this side of the ice, but I assume they shoot out with enough force that they would lodge up in there before exploding. Don’t you think so?”
“No.” When the pilot glanced back, Yas forced himself to lower his voice. “I don’t know about that, but this is a bad idea. And what do you mean we? I’m just the doctor.”
“Well, I might need a little help. Those men aren’t going to do anything I suggest. I’m their prisoner.” Her lips twisted, conveying how she felt about that.
Yas leaned his head against the seat. He did owe her for providing the vials for the cyborg-nerve-targeting weapon. But she wanted to communicate with the Kingdom ships, not the Fedallah, and if marines came down en masse, they would try to capture—or kill—Rache’s men. Yas could understand why she wanted to facilitate getting Casmir out of here as quickly as possible, but he feared any help he gave would backfire on Rache and the men.
Not that Rache couldn’t take care of himself. He might not even be perturbed by extra marines wandering around the base. He could probably use them to his advantage as distractions.
And Yas also didn’t want to see Casmir die. He was the goofy friendly version of Rache, and it wasn’t fair that as many people—and viruses—were gunning for him as they were for Rache.
“What do you want that won’t get me in trouble with Rache or hanged by all of his mercenaries?” Yas asked quietly.
“Is there any chance you outrank those men and can order them to do it?”
“I don’t outrank the fungus growing in the ship’s lavatory.”
“Ew.”
“Tell me about it. It’s some kind of mutation that resists cleaning agents. Or so the privates say.”
“How about a sedative?”
“For the fungus?”
“For the men.”
“Those are trained combat specialists. Even if I ambled up casually and managed to prick one with a jet injector, the other would pummel me into submission—or death—before I could get near his skin.”
“I can block one for a few seconds. Long enough for you to inject the other. But why not tell them you’re testing them for the Great Plague to make sure they have the mitochondrial modification?”
“That… might work, but they’ll realize when they wake up that I lied to them.”
“With luck, we’ll be done by then.”
“That won’t stop them from killing me. Or telling Rache.”
“You can tell Rache I forced you to help me by threatening to unleash deadly bacteria on the sub if you didn’t. He knows I’m pissed about Casmir. He might believe I went to that length.”
“Lies, lies, and more lies. I’m not very good at them.”
“Neither am I.” Kim shrugged.
“That’s good to hear from the person masterminding this plan.”
“Go prepare a couple of sedatives in sickbay. Let me see if I can send them back to you in a way that neither of us has to lie.”
Yas raised his eyebrows.
“We could also stun them if there are stunners around. They’re not wearing their helmets.”
“I haven’t noticed that Rache’s men tote stunners that many places.” Yas couldn’t even remember seeing one on the ship. “They’re more into dealing with enemies in a more permanent fashion.”
“Charming.” Kim pressed her lips together and radiated disapproval.
Yas hoped he wasn’t hurting Rache’s chances of getting the date he seemed to be angling for. He also hoped he wasn’t agreeing to anything that would get Rache in trouble.
If Kim sta
rted communicating with one of the Kingdom warships, Amergin would be able to intercept it, wouldn’t he? He’d been monitoring the Fleet and had caught other messages, like the one he’d shown Kim. Of course, Yas could comm the Fedallah preemptively and try to get them to pick up Casmir. He could help Casmir as easily as a Kingdom doctor could, so long as he had use of the sickbay lab up there.
“Go get ready, please,” Kim said, her eyes intent.
“Right.”
Yas headed back to sickbay, but Kim stepped into the aisle and called after him.
“You’re sure I’m all right?” Her voice was loud enough that both mercenaries peered back.
Yas realized she was setting something up but wasn’t sure what the appropriate response was. “Yes,” he guessed. “I checked twice.”
She gave a minute head nod. “Thank you, Doctor.”
She headed up to navigation. Yas slipped into the sickbay nook but stayed by the open hatch, listening curiously.
“Any word yet from the teams?” she asked, her voice just making it back to Yas.
“Nope. Comms are still off.”
“I guess it’s good that we’re isolated so the virus can’t spread.”
“Virus? What virus?”
“The Great Plague. Rache didn’t tell you?”
“The Great— What?” It hadn’t taken long for the pilot’s voice to escalate to worry.
Remembering his role, Yas hurried to prepare two jet injectors with sedatives.
“We’re probably all fine,” Kim said. “Almost everybody is these days, thanks to our ancestors undergoing genetic modifications that make humans unpalatable to the virus.”
“Almost everybody? How’d it get here if we’re unpala— unpal— that thing?”
“Unfortunately, my friend’s ancestors didn’t undergo the transformation.” Kim did not have to, Yas was sure, feign the distress in her voice. “He’s very contagious and getting sicker by the minute. That’s why I was angry that Rache dragged him into that mess.” She paused to let that sink in, then added, “Have you two boys been checked for the modification?”
“Uhm.”
“Can the doc do that?”
“Yes,” Kim said. “I just had him check me to make sure. I was feeling a little hot.”
Gate Quest (Star Kingdom Book 5) Page 27