by E M Garcia
“Never did like baseball.” I lowered my hand, which had indeed been twirling my necklace, to my side. The speech I carefully crafted on my way to Adamant withered in my brain and fell away. I needed to take a sip of something to wet my dry lips, but everything on the table smelled like fire water. “The Lady is going on a trip soon, her last one. I need to get a few of the Wreckers together for the voyage. ”
He looked few several seconds at me as if he couldn't quite decide if I was being honest. He had to have known I was. Why else would he brave security and ire of the Galactic Alliance but to tell J’Selle goodbye? He had known. They had all known. I was the last to find out.
Mason shrugged, lowering hIzzyad until his dark hair fell over his eyes. “Afraid I couldn’t help you there if I wanted to. Maybe you’ve heard, not too many are happy with me. I’d wager fewer after the last few days.”
I swallowed hard, nodding in understanding. “Mr. Mason, were you involved with the incidents at the dock and the casino?”
His eyes harden as his face melted from cool amusement to icy fury. He tossed back his second drink and slammed the glass on the table, rising to his feet. “Strike three, Ambassador. Have a good night.”
As he brushed past me, I caught Mason by the sleeve. He paused and looked down at my fingers, the amused smile creeping back to his lips. “The Demon is right, you’ve got guts.”
“I only asked because they will. You wouldn’t still be here if you had.” I released a breath and let him go when the answer seemed to satisfy him. “You’re as much one of the Wreckers as any of the others, Mr. Mason. People remember. They would help.”
Mason grimaced. “The old Cage idealism. I always wondered if it was a family trait.”
“There are no Cages anymore. Just me.” The words burned on my tongue. It shouldn’t have hurt so much to lose one week a year. A little of something was better than a lot of nothing.
“We’re all a dying breed.” Mason’s eyes wrinkled as he turned his back to me. “Sorry, Ambassador, but if you want your trip to work, it’s better for everyone if I stay grounded.”
There was a note of finality in his tone that I found hard to argue with. He disappeared into the crowd of dancers before I had a chance to try. I sighed and sat back down. Mason’s refusal left me with only Xaveer to approach Daq’usk’s complication to contend with.
With their male patrons gone, the women at the table had no interest in me. They turned to turned to each other.
“Spirits, can you believe our luck?,” the knaewa said, tilting her bald her toward or colleague. “The first time an Elite walks through the door, and not only does he sit in our section, he brought a friend!”
“A few too many.” The human woman glanced at me out of the corner of her eye.
I left my attention drift from their comparisons of Xaveer and Mason’s potential in bed to the rest of the bar. My stomach clenched as I spotted The Demon talking to his handler, arguing from the look of it. He grinned and said something that made the woman’s spin and shoulders stiffen. She glanced at me over her shoulder, grimaced, then stormed over to the table. Well, shit.
For a few seconds, she glowered down at me without speaking. “Woman—”
“Tameron,” I said, climbing to my feet. It didn’t do much to bridge the height gap between us.
She took a step back and looked at me as if to note the slightness of my frame compared to hers. I couldn’t deny being on the short side. Of the Cage kids, Jackson was built for war. My short legs did me no favors on the battlefield. I belonged in a cockpit or a boardroom. I’d never felt as small as I did standing next to the towering woman.
“I prefer Ambassador. He will not leave until he speaks with you. Alone.” She cast a disapproving glance at the human and Knaewa in the booth behind me.
I nodded and made my way to the bar. There were two glasses of clear liquid on the bar in front of Xaveer, one of which he slid to me. It had the same sharp alcoholic scent as every glass at the table.
“Sorry, I’m on duty,” I said, putting my hand over the mouth of the glass.
“I figured that out when Trick left.” He plucked the drink from beneath my fingers and downed it in one smooth gulp. “You offered him a job, yeah? Whatever it is, count me in. I could use a little excitement.”
“I’m not asking anybody to pick up weapons or storm a fort.” I said it to be melodramatic, but it occurred to me I had just described Xaveer’s entire career. “It’s just a pleasure cruise, Xaveer, and the Cal doesn’t look the way you remember her.”
“Sounds like more fun than three weeks on a transport bound for Strekháni space. Like I said, I’m in.”
Every instinct I had told me take the Xaveer’s offer and run. Something in my gut told me that for this to work, I had to be honest with the Wreckers from the start.
“You should know Daq’usk of Ithil has agreed to come aboard, pending crew confirmation.” I said the words as calmly as I could, but they still left my mouth in a rush.
The black furred Strekháni paused, the expression souring for a second before the usual smile returned to his jet-black lips. “Shouldn’t be a problem.”
“I’ll have the Embassy reach out to the Protectorate,” I said. I might avoid speaking to Gale again after all. “Assuming I get approval.”
“You will,” he murmured into another drink. “If there’s one thing the Alliance loves, it’s a spectacle.”
I turned to leave the bar, counting my blessings that Daq’usk had been wrong. With him and Xaveer on board, I only needed one more Wrecker to get approval. Hell, with the angle of cooperation between the various species and governments, I might have enough already.
“You wanna say that to me again, you son of a bitch?” A gruff voice bellowed behind me. I turned to see Xaveer gazing down the bridge of his nose at a human man two feet shorter than him, a devilish grin on his lips. In a flash of movement, the Demon swiped his elbow upward, clipping the human beneath the chin and sending him sprawling into the patrons behind him.
I left just as the security bots started to break it up.
8
When I left Adamant, I went to J’Selle’s lab back in the upper levels. On the way, I fired off a message to Uncle Archer explaining the plan and begging for hIzzylp with Alix. I hoped he would take the hint I didn’t mention Gale. An hour passed while I waited outside the lab for the Admiral to respond. I could have pretended I wanted to visit, but I wasn’t couldn’t face J’Selle until I could tell her everything.
While I waited, all the scientists left, except J'Selle. I hope they went home to rest, but if they were anything like the Lady they would work more at home. Halfway through the second hour, my comm buzzed with the Admiral’s message.
Mission is a go, with conditions. Will inform in pending report. ~A.W.
I headed toward the frosted glass doors. To my surprise, the light the reception area was still on. The human man behind the central console looked to be in his early thirties, with jet black hair and chestnut skin. His wore the white and gray uniform of a GA scientist, but he had the don’t-fuck-with-me demeanor and squared soldiers of a military man..
He looked up at me, a circle of blue light blinking around his irises. “Tameron Cage isn't it?
“You know me?” I rolled my eyes and my stupid question. “Why wouldn't you. You work with my sister.”
He nodded and slid to his feet, forcing his lips into something that was almost a smile. “For the last year. But even if I didn’t, your face is hard to forget.”
My muscles tensed, hating being caught at a disadvantage. “I’m sorry, have we met?”
“Salazar Price, and not as such.” Price leaned against the console,. “Doing a swan dive onto an armed terrorist gets attention around here. Perfect form. Were you a swimmer as a child?”
The smile on my face tightened. Something about the shit in his tone made the hairs on my neck prickle. Who the hell asked a stranger about their childhood? “It’s late,
Mr. Price. If you don’t mind, I’d like to go see my sister-in-law.”
“No, there wouldn’t have been freestanding water calm enough for it on N'Cali. Not before the eruption, anyway.”
A wave of rage swept over me. I lowered my hands to my sides, below the console where he couldn’t see how they trembled. I didn’t dare open my mouth because I would have no control of what came out..
“That was the first time Commander Cage made a name for himself, wasn’t it?” He spoke so softly, I had to strain to hear him. “Everybody remembers Aurora. Not many remember what happened in Victoria. Some say a colony shouldn't have been built near a volcano at all.”
He was wrong. Jack saved two hundred people that day. Maybe some had forgotten over the years, but I never could. Believe me, I tried. The eruption of Mt Victoria was seared into my memory.
“I’m afraid I don’t follow colonial politics, Mr. Price.” I said when I could speak again. “I’m an Alliance citizen, now. Just like you.”
“Actually, I’m a Federation citizen.” Price leaned back and his shoulders stiffened. He looked back down at the console and resumed pressing buttons. “Dr. Cage is upstairs. Shouldn’t be hard to find, she’s the only one left.”
I couldn't get away from Price fast enough. I took the stairs to J'Selle's lab two at a time. She stood at a console with her back to me in the middle of a glass-walled room. Her slender shoulders jerked and swayed as her fingers moved over the keyboard. A swirling orb of glimmering electricity was on the other side of her. It was two meters wide and across, almost as tall as J’Selle. A gentle murmuring filled the room, rising and falling in time with the orb’s movement.
“What is that?” The words fell from my lips as if someone else had said them.
A slight jerk of J’Selle’s head in my direction was the only outward sign I had surprised her. “This is RAE, our centerpiece project.”
“That’s an AI?” I furrowed my brow as I walked closer them. The murmurs paused for a second then continued as before.
“RAE’s much more than that.” I could almost hear the smile in J’Selle’s voice, but her face was expressionless as ever when she turned to face me. Her fingers never stopped moving over the console. “His neural structure is far beyond anything the Alliance species can replicate. We’ve been working for years to reverse engineer it, and we’ve still barely scratched the surface.”
I could tell from her pause she expected me to moon over her science experiment. J’Selle had worked in the same lab since after Jack died. For all I knew, she had been working on RAE the entire time. The lump in my throat was too big for cooing.
“Everything Alliance advancement for the past half decade is thanks to RAE,” she continued. “The same will be true of every advancement in your lifetime.”
The excitement in J’Selle’s voice and her blank face were too sharp a contrast for me. I turned away, focusing my eyes back on RAE. The longer I watched, the more convinced I became that the murmuring was trying to communicate.
“Can it hear us?” I asked.
The tapping on the keyboard paused for a second, then resumed twice as fast as before. “Sometimes I think so, but I’ve never been able to prove it to my superior’s satisfaction. I’m close.”
Was that why she couldn’t take her fingers off the keyboard? There wasn’t much time left to solve this last riddle, the one that had consumed her after she lost her forbidden love. I reached out and took her thin wrist between my hand.
“I wish you had told me, Jay,” I whispered, knowing if I spoke any louder it would come out in a sob. “Maybe I could have had the Admiral pull some strings.”
She paused, but still didn’t look up at me. I could see her mind working for a few seconds before her expression smoothed again. “Daq told you about my summons.”
“J’Selle, you should have told me! Why didn't you fight it?” I let her go and took a breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t come here to argue.”
“You would have fought for me. I didn't want you to.” she said. Qu’ren logic was impossible to argue with, especially what it was dead on accurate.
“Not if it’s what you want.” Ten years living in a loved one’s tomb was hard, nobody knew better than me. How could I blame her for wanting to escape it when I wanted the same thing? “I would have done exactly what I did, arrange a ride.”
She turned with a raised brow. “A ride?”
I nodded. “On the Calypso. LT, Shadow, and the Demon are all on board. You're the only one who needs to sign on.”
“You convinced Daq’usk and Xaveer to share a ship again?”
“I convinced them the Lady is going away, and she deserves a proper send off. You deserve a hell of a lot more.” I turned to her, rising to my full height and bringing my hand in the GA salute. “On behalf of the Alliance, thank you for your service, Doctor Cage.”
She stared at me with wide eyes, lunging forward and wrapping her arms around me. It was such a rare gesture, I took a beat for me to hug her back.
“I’ve never known you to be so sentimental, Angel,” she whispered.
“Don’t tell Mac or Izzy when you see them? Neither of them will ever let me hear the end of it.”
She nodded and pulled back, taking my shoulders in her bony hands. “This changes things. Would it hurt you if I didn’t come back to the apartment tonight? There are thing I need to do here.”
Cozy moment over. I shook my head and shoved my hands into my pockets. “It’s fine. I need to get the mission briefs ready. Besides, from the sound of it Daq could use the break.”
J’Selle turned back to the console, her fingers dancing over the surface again. “We wouldn’t fight if he weren’t so stubborn. He hasn’t changed at all.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I turned away. “Bet he’d say the same about you.”
Someone had dimmed the lights in the reception area, and Salazar Price was gone. Thank goodness for small favors. Bitter memories would destroy the warm buzz of my conversation with J’Selle. They were rare enough moments, and we were running out of time to capture them. My comm buzzed as I left the lab. I brought my wrist up and turned it on without bothering to check the caller.
Gale Howard smiled at me in gray from the comm screen. “How’s it going, Ambassador?”
Damn it. “How did you get my number, Gale?”
He shrugged and leaned back in his chair, the cocky grin fixed on his perfect lips. “You’re a civil servant, Ambassador.”
“My private number?” The point still stood. A TF Commander could get the home number of a GA diplomat any time he wanted if he told the right lies. I could feel my temper build. It threatened to spark. “What do you want, Commander? I’m busy,”
“I’ll bet,” his grin widened. “Federation loved your idea for the escort mission. They loved it so much, they put yours truly on the team. You can't undo it; Lieutenant Barnes’s participation is conditional to mine.”
My stomach sank. I could throw a fit and kick him off the ship, lose Alix and pray Shadow and the Demon were enough. They wouldn’t be. If Galeon was the last piece, any version of the trip without him would fail. While I had been hovering outside J’Selle’s lab, Galeon had outplayed me.
“Damn it.”
“Now, Tam, don’t be that way.” Gale furrowed his brow, leaning forward toward the screen. “There’s no reason we can’t come through this as friends.”
"We’re not friends, Gale." I snapped. "We're colleagues and in three week, ancestors willing, we won't even be that anymore."
Gale lowered hIzzyad. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Ambassador. I'll consider our relationship purely professional. This my official request to come aboard. After that, I won't bug you anymore than neseccary."
"Permission granted," I cut the feed before he could say anything else. My muscles trembled. This whole thing had been a mistake. There was no way I could spend three weeks trapped on the Cal with Galeon Howard. If we didn't kill each other, we would definitel
y end up in bed together.
9
Securing the transfer to an undamaged dock, paperwork, and extra supplies for the trip took up the last three days Memorial Week. Five days after the bombing, I stepped onto the main corridor of the Cal and took a deep breath. Five days, six Wreckers, and three government’s worth of red tape. Not bad for a woman with a concussion. I would have loved to savor it, but the extra work that came with the Wreckers took up the time I otherwise would have used to review Izzy’s mission brief. So, it was right to the lift and my office to do makeup work.
The lift doors slid open, revealing the last person I wanted to see, Gale.
He blinked and rose to his full height. “Just who I was looking for. Do you have a minute, Ambassador?"
Somehow, Gale managed to keep his voice even and without the usual hint of naughtiness. I had to give him credit, he stuck to his word. He left me alone while we were on Aurora, but I should have expected his patience to run out was the Cal took off.
"Afraid not, Commander .” I brushed past him and stepped into the lift, punching the button for the upper deck. "Whatever it is talk to Alix about it, or whoever ended up being XO.”
Gale followed as I stepped out onto my floor. He hovered three steps behind me at all times, a respectable distance, but somehow still too close. “It’s a little too complicated than Alix.”
"I'm sure he'll appreciate the vote of confidence." As we got to my ready room, I reached for the panel to press my thumb against the face. Gale caught my wrist and held it in place.
"Allow me." He brushed my hand aside and pressed his own against the panel. The door swooshed open. When I looked at him, his smile had already turned into a cocky grin.
"You're my XO?" I didn’t wait for an answer, instead striding into my office and stepping behind my desk. Thankfully, a wall and door separated my office from my living area.. If Gale thought he could get a free peak into my bedroom, his ass had another think coming.