Caretakers (Stag Privateers Book 2)

by Nathan Jones

  Like they actually had.

  At the moment, her only protection from their suspicion was the fact that they didn't think it was possible for someone with a mind wipe to retain Dormant programming. But the moment they knew about Jaziri Irsham, they'd have the puzzle pieces they needed to jump to that possibility.

  Lana needed to act now, before anyone saw that sign. And she now faced the conflicting objectives of getting away from the others to report in, and having to remain with them to prevent them from spotting any other wanted signs like this one, if possible.

  She might've been brainwashed by her handlers to be mindlessly loyal, but that didn't mean she couldn't consider them a bunch of incompetent sewage clogs for failing to think of wiping traces of her existence before sending her on an infiltration job.

  Did a single one of them have even a fraction of the skills she'd already had, let alone what they'd programmed into her? Sometimes she felt like she was trying to accomplish this mission in spite of their efforts, rather than aided by them. Like she was completely alone.

  Well, as a disposable infiltrator she technically was. Her handlers could've at least pretended like they wanted her to succeed, though.

  Lana unobtrusively raised her finger to her comms headset, linking it to the pad she'd brought along that was hanging from her belt, and got to work while pretending to still be gawking at her surroundings. It was like trying to perform delicate surgery with a sledgehammer, or more accurately like trying to move a mountain with a teaspoon.

  The station's security wouldn't have been a problem if she'd had more than a basic pad to work with, especially if she could've put her whole focus to the task. But as it was, it took her agonizing seconds frantically parsing the nearest wanted posters, practically blind and going on feedback provided by changes to the posters themselves as she affected them, searching for hers.

  Up ahead, Aiden scratched his arm and glanced back towards her, eyes roving the wall with her picture. Distraction! No, nothing she could do in time without further raising his suspicion. In any case, his eyes slid right over the notices; he wasn't interested in them, and didn't have the mental training or capacity for subconscious environmental observation and recognition needed to pick out pertinent details.

  If Dax or Ali looked that way, or possibly even one of the twins for that matter, her primary objective was blown.

  Lana shifted from delicately operating the pad to fiddling with its position on her belt as the captain's eyes fell on her. “Do they have to make these things so uncomfortable to carry?” she complained. He snorted and looked forward again, and she got back to her furious work.

  The gunner started to pay attention to her again just as the wanted poster fizzled and faded from the wall, and she was in the process of restoring her headset to its usual function. She gave him a wry smile, tapping the small device. “I remember when I was excited about being able to wear this thing . . . now I wish I had one to go in the other ear too, so I could switch off when this one gets too uncomfortable.”

  He shrugged, although she could tell he was amused. “A small price to pay for being able to talk to any of us at any time?”

  Crisis averted, at least for the moment, the Dormant blurred the memory of every event since the Blank Slate had seen her picture, then once again receded. Although she resolved that along with sending her report once she managed to slip away, she also needed to use the station's computers to locate and wipe any more posters or other references to her previous life. Ideally before the companion started digging around in there, dumping entire databanks of information into her memory to parse later.

  Lana laughed lightly and leaned in to press her lips to her boyfriend's. “Especially you . . . I'd wear a piece of hull plating on my head to talk to you whenever I want.”

  Barix pantomimed gagging over his plate. “I didn't realize this spicy dish was going to come with a sickeningly sugary sauce.”

  * * * * *

  Aiden couldn't exactly disagree with the slight man's sentiment.

  It had probably been a bad idea for him to tell Lana to shower the gunner with affection; the young woman was almost gleefully taking advantage of the chance to carry out the order.

  To be fair, since he'd ordered them both to avoid such public displays on the ship, she was probably just happy to have a chance to show her feelings for once. Still, with all the hand holding, kissing, and cuddling it was hard not to feel like she was rubbing her close relationship with the young man in Aiden's face.

  Well, let her be immature. As captain it was his responsibility to take the high road anyway.

  Although that didn't mean he had to just endure it unnecessarily. “Gunner, take Lana and go buy supplies,” he said.

  The young man nodded and started to head out into the crowd, but the young woman hesitated, looking torn. “I've spent the last month thinking of some personal errands I wanted to run, the next chance I got,” she said.

  Aiden shrugged and took a bite of his squid, talking around a mouthful. “That's great, the gunner can help you with them.”

  “Oh.” Considering Lana had just been draped all over her lover, she looked oddly reluctant about that. Was there something she wanted to do in private? “He's going to be busy enough with buying supplies without me dragging him around half the station,” she argued.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Just how many errands did you need to do?” For that matter, how many errands could a Blank Slate in a completely unfamiliar spaceport even have? He saw her start to scowl and made his voice stern. “Take the gunner . . . after what happened in the last station you visited, I'd prefer it if you didn't go running off alone.”

  “You said this place is safe!” Lana protested.

  Barix snickered. “No, he said they search new arrivals for guns and have strict security. The fact you think that makes it safe just proves how naive you are.”

  Insultingly put as that had been, the man wasn't wrong. Aiden nodded. “There's still danger, it's just less overt. So take the gunner.”

  Smirking, the Ishivi patted the young woman's arm in mock sympathy. “Just tell him to look the other way while you're buying racy undergarments or feminine hygiene products or whatever.” Lana blushed furiously and shot the slight man an aggrieved look.

  That reminded Aiden. “Speaking of buying . . .” He reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out a hundred chit strip, tossing it to Lana. She fumbled to catch it, looking surprised. “Spending money.”

  “Taken out of what pay?” Barix protested. “We haven't taken a priz-” he cut off, hastily looking around before lowering his voice slightly. “That is, had a payday since she came aboard. Unless you count that, uh, salvage work, which I certainly don't.”

  Aiden shrugged irritably. “Then it'll be an advance on her pay. What're you complaining about? It's not like you're getting paid any less because of it.”

  “Actually, with her on the crew my share of the profits is now . . .” the slight man caught his expression and trailed off, scowling. “Fine, whatever. Shower another man's woman with gifts, that'll get you somewhere.”

  “Charming as always, Barix,” the gunner said flatly, offering Lana his arm. She reluctantly left with him, looking suspiciously close to pouting. Maybe she was trying to get away to buy him a gift or something.

  Aiden shook his head and hastily wolfed down the last of his food, tossing it in the nearest bin. Ali did the same with her half full plate, and he couldn't blame her; she didn't complain about the hassle of eliminating the food she “ate”, but from past experience it was obviously an area HAE needed to do more work on. Aiden had to admit it was nice to share a good meal with her, but it was wasteful and not worth the bother just to slightly heighten the illusion that she was human.

  “Oh, I get it. Now that the others are gone I'm a third wheel,” Barix said, and Aiden could practically see him rolling his eyes behind his high tech eyewear. “Fine, I'll go see what sort of fun I can buy in this place.
”

  As the slight man slid through the crowd, which came fairly close to parting in front of him when people realized he was Ishivi, Aiden turned to his companion. “Ready to get to work?”

  She nodded, although she looked a bit hesitant. Doubting her abilities? “Maybe you should search for your friend and take care of business with her, before I start poking around at whatever security this place has.”

  Aiden chuckled, slipping an arm around her waist. “Your knowledge is a year out of date, not completely obsolete.”

  Ali smiled back, looking fairly convincing in spite of her obvious doubt. “The field of cyber security moves fast.”

  Well, that was reassuring.

  They found a secluded public terminal, offering surprisingly inexpensive rates as well, and Ali quickly checked to make sure the station wasn't spying on its users. After confirming it was clean aside from the usual Deek snoopware, which was always out of date and easy to circumvent, Aiden got to work checking the various drop boxes and private station nodes he'd arranged with his old flame.

  Idly, he wondered how Tisa would react to Ali, especially if she knew his new lover was an adult companion. What they'd shared had basically been a fling, and a brief one at that, but they'd parted on good enough terms to hint at a repeat performance if he ever ran into her again. There might have even been enough chemistry there to be jealous of Ali.

  Although knowing Tisa, she might just want him to share his toy.

  Or not; after ten minutes Aiden had exhausted all their arranged drop boxes, confirming they were either defunct or no longer existed. The station nodes had also disappeared, and Ali, monitoring his work, cautioned him that he might want to tread cautiously or he'd start triggering alarms in some of his searches.

  Running out of options, he searched Tisa's name on the station's manifest, again coming up blank. Starting to lose hope, he poked into the allnet and did a general search for his friend's name and identifying features.

  Complete event horizon. Her allnet profile was gone, and the few tens of thousands of people in the universe who shared her name would take a while to parse through, unless he had Ali do it. He nodded to her, and she got to work.

  A couple minutes later, she shook her head at him. “Dig deeper?”

  “Why bother, there's no sign of her anywhere,” Aiden growled in disgust, stepping away from the terminal.

  His companion nodded. “It's possible she had to change her identity, and is still on the station.”

  “Fat lot of good that'll do us, if she's burned every means I had of contacting her.” He leaned out of the terminal, looking around at the passing people as if expecting to see his old lover popping around the corner at any second. When she didn't make an appearance he shook his head with a sigh and closed the privacy barrier again. “Think her connection to me is what burned her?”

  Ali shrugged. “Possibly. Movement Intelligence agents have probably been digging through your past with a fine-tooth comb, trying to find anything they can to get at you.”

  Considering that his companion was usually a wellspring of information about the logical conclusions to her data analysis, it was telling that she didn't mention that his friend might've been captured, even killed, rather than simply forced to go into hiding. A small mercy, although of course Aiden dwelled on that possibility anyway.

  He nodded curtly at the terminal. “I guess this is your show, then. Try to dig us up something useful in the station's databanks without getting caught.”

  She shot him a hurt look. “Your faith in my abilities is shaken, if you had to include that last part.” Again, she didn't mention this blasted sync she so clearly wanted to do. But it was obvious, even with that stranger's face she was wearing, that she was trying hard not to once again press the issue. She didn't, though, which was what he wanted.

  He patted the top of the terminal impatiently, waiting for her to get to work.

  Ali did, directly connecting to the terminal and working without the need for a display. That made it hard to tell she was doing anything at all, and Aiden settled down for a long, dull wait.

  Or not; after only a few minutes, long before he had a chance to get bored, his companion abruptly stiffened and turned towards him, watery hazel eyes widening. The terminal went blank, her emergency action to overload the system rather than taking time covering the tracks of whatever she'd been doing.

  Without a word, she grabbed his hand and yanked him towards the privacy barrier, then out onto the concourse. Even there, she dragged him along with such urgency she came close to looking suspicious. On top of that she was clutching his hand tighter than was strictly necessary, either to comfort him or in an attempt to show nervousness like a real human would.

  Neither was a good sign.

  “What is it?” he said under his breath, as he continued to glance around casually.

  Ali spoke quickly and urgently. “My tap into the station's computers just warned me that a light cruiser identifying itself as the DMS Vindicator has jumped into the system. It's approaching the station under usual docking procedures, ETA forty minutes.”

  Aiden felt his mouth go dry, although he kept his posture relaxed. It couldn't be a coincidence that the ship they'd encountered at Brastos 4 was here, although how they'd known to be was a complete mystery. “Do they show any signs they know we're here?” he asked in a low voice. “Are they contacting Station Control about detaining us? Any ships nearby change their course, or more ships jumping in?”

  She shook her head, plain features furrowed in puzzlement. “No, they continue to act as if this is a simple, routine stop for refueling, supplies, ship maintenance, and temporary leave for the crew.” Her ugly, disguised eyes looked up at him worriedly. “But why else would a ship from the task force that's chasing us be here, in this system where we are in an entirely different galaxy? The odds of it being a coincidence are astronomically low.”

  That matched his own conclusion. “Can we get to the ship and escape before they reach the station?” he demanded, as Ali turned them down a side corridor that would take them back to the Last Stand by the quickest path.

  She shrugged. “If they don't alert the station and mobilize its weapons against us, maybe.”

  Aiden cursed under his breath. Why did these blasted Deeks have to show up while they were all off the ship? Even if the Vindicator had somehow gotten word of where they were, this was a quick response. He activated his comm to address the entire crew. “Emergency egress. You have five minutes to get back to the ship.”

  Belix was first to respond, voice ragged. “You have got to be kidding me! That's going to be a bit tough considering I'm kind of tied up at the moment. And by “kind of”, I mean “literally.” He could hear the pout in her voice as she continued in a sullen mutter. “I was having so much fun, too.”

  Of course she was. He grit his teeth. “Vindicator just jumped in and is headed our way, less than forty minutes out.”

  The Ishivi's tone immediately changed. “Well would you look at the time!” she said cheerily, probably not to him. “Guess I'll have to leave this DNA sample in its current organic storage devices instead of taking it with me.”

  That, unfortunately, probably was directed at him; he really wished the infuriating woman wouldn't constantly find excuses to hint at what she got up to when they stopped at these stations. Or, even worse, her purpose for doing it. After being on the wrong side of her void-cursed Ishivi breeding program once, he hated being reminded of it. Which was exactly why he avoided the gunner where he could, although Lana seemed determined to make that impossible these days.

  Speaking of the lovebirds, they replied they'd be back in time, as did Barix.

  After a mad scramble back to the ship that took less than three minutes, they were all aboard and ready to go. Ali had already ordered the station to release the docking clamps by the time Aiden hurled himself into the pilot's chair, maneuvering his beauty away from the dock. His companion also fed him a cour
se that would take them in the opposite direction from the approaching Vindicator, one she'd coordinated with Station Control so it wouldn't look suspicious.

  “Do you think for once we could hit a spaceport without running into some kind of trouble?” Barix whined, eyes on his display reading sensor data.

  “Yeah sure,” Aiden replied, trying not to sound too sarcastic. “I'll just tell the Deeks to stop having their ships chase us. I'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding.” He turned to the gunner. “Please tell me you got us topped off before we had to go?”

  The young man nodded, silvery eyes even more unnerving in that impassive face. “Fuel and material to manufacture railgun slugs is at capacity. I've also taken the liberty of ordering extra emergency rations along with our usual food supplies, in case we have to go into hiding.”

  A possibility that wasn't completely out of the question, considering the Movement warship that had somehow found them. Aiden turned to Ali. “How fast can you get us a rift out of here?”

  His companion was opening her mouth to answer when the lights in the bridge abruptly flickered. Then, as the result of an obviously successful hacking attempt, the main display shifted from a view of the system to show a plain, severe-looking woman staring at him with the intent curiosity of a bird looking at a worm.

  Chapter Six

  Too Good to Refuse

  The Dormant had been mulling over her failure to slip away from the gunner, unable to report in or erase evidence of her past life from the spaceport.

  Although to be fair, with them fleeing the station thanks to the Vindicator's sudden arrival, the latter hadn't really been necessary. And if the task force ship knew the Last Stand was here and was hunting them, the former wasn't quite as necessary, either.

  Maybe it was a lapse of concentration, or maybe because she'd been in the midst of receding fully and letting the Blank Slate back in total control, probably for a while this time. Either way, she slipped up and showed a flash of recognition at the woman who'd apparently hacked the ship's computers and was now on the main display.