Caretakers (Stag Privateers Book 2)

by Nathan Jones

  The captain might pretend like he was a bitter, universe weary husk, and Ali was just his sex robot, but Lana had seen clearly the strong feelings the man had for the adult companion. After all, she recognized many of those feelings in herself, for Dax.

  The other ship in the simulation finally got them, swanning along on an infuriatingly straight trajectory and pouring leisurely fire at them once its pilot realized Lana didn't have an icicle's chance in a supernova of hitting them. That came after a few frustrating minutes of her emptying the railgun's magazine into empty space, which only sent the hyper dense slugs zooming merrily off into the void, the chances of them hitting anything on their eternal journey through the cosmos literally astronomically low.

  She would've liked to pretend her shots came somewhere near the target, but at times they weren't even going in the right direction.

  Frustrated beyond words and resigned to the inevitable loss, Lana let her hands drop off the firing controls as enemy fire finished disabling their ship's vital systems, then got to work on the kill shot. Moments later the full immersion recreation of the Last Stand blew up around them, the ship's bridge fading to a white void.

  “I know nobody likes a quitter,” she said as she slumped back in the weapons station's seat, “but I think I've had enough for the moment.”

  Her boyfriend nodded, reaching across the vacant workstation hanging in the emptiness between them to pat her shoulder. “I'd say we got in a good training session. Maybe we can hit the gym next, do some exercises to hone our reflexes.”

  She wouldn't have called anything about the last few hours “good”. And now, feeling wrung out as a rag from the constant tension of trying her hardest, the last thing she wanted was exercise.

  Or at least, not that sort of exercise. “I'd rather hit the bed,” she said, giving him an impish look. He was now mostly healed from the worst of the burns he'd suffered, and had been as eager as she was to get back to their previous intimacy.

  Dax snorted, one of those shows of emotion from him that was becoming more common the longer they were together. “You know I'll never pass up the opportunity. But I know how much you want to learn this, and I want to be a help in that, not a distraction.”

  Lana did her best not to sulk. “Fine, gym it is. But you'd better make it up to me later.”

  He nodded solemnly, although his green eyes twinkled. “I think I can manage that.”

  They headed out of the lounge and into the corridor, a comfortable silence between them. “Do you think the Captain will ever take Ali back?” she asked as they walked side by side.

  Her boyfriend paused, seeming to think that over carefully. “I don't know,” he finally admitted. “Trust lost is hard regained.”

  That had the sound of a saying to it, although Lana didn't recognize it. Not that she would, of course. “It's just, he'll be so lonely without her,” she said, shuddering slightly at the thought of suddenly being without Dax. Sleeping alone in her room again, tiptoeing around crew mates that seemed to hate each other.

  Her boyfriend seemed to be thinking the same thing, because his expression had become the usual blank mask he'd worn for so long. “No one on this ship is a stranger to loneliness,” he said quietly. “He survived it before.”

  “I don't want to survive like that,” Lana declared firmly, taking his arm and leaning into him for comfort at the very thought. “Promise me you aren't going anywhere.”

  He hesitated, as if about to point out that it was impossible to make a promise like that without lying, if fate had other ideas during one of the dangerous situations they seemed to keep getting into. Then he nodded firmly. “I promise,” he said, putting his arm around her and hugging her tight to him.

  “I promise too,” she replied. “No matter what, we'll make it through this insane universe together until we find something better.”

  She only realized after she said it that her declaration could be taken in a rather dark way she hadn't meant. But thankfully Dax seemed to accept it the way she'd intended, and nodded resolutely. “A future beyond this ship.”

  Lana abruptly giggled. “Who knows, maybe we'll end up back on Callous. We can have some of our own kids for you to toss high in the air and spin in circles and chase around.”

  Her boyfriend stumbled on nothing, turning to look at her with wide eyes, and with chagrin she realized he might not have taken that as a joke. Then again, maybe she hadn't been entirely joking. “Someday,” she hastily added, unsure how she felt about the idea herself.

  “Someday,” Dax agreed, looking thoughtful.

  Their conversation was cut short by reaching the ship's small gym. Although they barely had a chance to begin warming up, in preparation for Dax's “reflex exercises”, when Aiden paged all crew to the bridge from the shipboard intercom.

  “Emergency?” Lana asked, doing her best to hide a surge of alarm.

  Her boyfriend shook his head, although he wasted no time heading for the door as she hurried to catch up. “If it was an emergency, all the klaxons would be going crazy. That, and the Captain would be cursing me all the way to the bridge to assume my station.”

  That didn't sound pleasant, although Lana couldn't help but think a bit glumly that nobody was going to be cursing for her to hurry to her post in the shields room. Well, it was an important job even so, and she'd work her way up to something more vital in time; Belix was still nearly desperate for Lana to take over for her in engines so she could do anything else. But the training there had been slowed by Lana spending so much time learning the shields system, so she could be of more immediate use around the ship.

  They reached the bridge to find that everyone but Belix was already there, although the elfin woman entered hot on their heels. Aiden barely waited for them to assume their stations before clearing his throat. “We have a target.”

  The announcement was met with confused silence. “Exactly how?” Barix asked lazily, most of his attention still on his display. “Our new upgraded murder robot take the time to magic up some useful intel while we were sitting around getting threatened by Elyssa?”

  The captain's eye twitched slightly, the only sign of his annoyance. “Close but not quite. The Caretakers are feeding us the information.”

  Lana frowned. Wasn't the man's entire problem with Ali the fact that he no longer trusted her, now that she was a Caretaker? And suddenly he wanted to take jobs from her? “What exactly is our reason for hitting this target of theirs?” she demanded. “They already paid us enough to keep going for as long as needed, and we're stacking up powerful enemies in the ruling government in the universe and humanity's criminal underworld. Why stick our necks out?”

  “Much as I'd like to point out that Lana's become a lot more snarky since she hooked up with the gunner,” Belix cut in before Aiden could answer, “I can't say she's completely wrong here.”

  “Much as I hate to give up the chance to make still more chits,” Barix added, “I'm inclined to agree as well. Now seems like the worst possible time to be getting back to business as usual.”

  Aiden scowled. “This is who we are,” he snapped. “This is the life. I didn't start my privateering career to get rich, I did it to hit the Deeks whenever and however I can. If the Caretakers are willing to feed us solid information, targets we can safely hit without bringing a swarm of enemies down on our heads, then I'm willing to entertain them as a patron. They can't be any worse than our last one.”

  Well that went without saying. Not that that was saying much.

  The slight man rubbed at his narrow chin. “When you put it that way, I've never been one to argue opportunities to get more wealthy when the odds are stacked in our favor. And having self-replicating, advanced AIs as allies does seem to do a lot for our odds.” He smirked and glanced at Ali. “Not to mention, I can't pretend I'm not highly motivated by a chance to work with the guys who could in the future provide me with an adult companion of my own. I think I'll go with the Ali model.”

  The
captain's lips thinned in irritation, but as usual he let the comment pass. He leaned forward, planting his fists on the back of his seat, and looked around. “Playtime's over, it's time to get back on the prowl. The universe is full of Deeks to kill.”

  Lana stared at the man. For a while now she'd been trying to reconcile the two sides of him she saw. The man who'd saved her, who'd given her a place aboard his ship, who'd bared his shame over Dax. And the ruthless pirate, who left ships stripped bare of vital systems and helpless without rescue. Who'd pushed a bunch of prisoners out an airlock because they were monsters.

  Maybe she'd fooled herself over the last several weeks into thinking they were two different people, that what he'd done for the scientists on Recluse represented the real him, not just the kinder side. But more and more, she was realizing there was only Aiden Thorne, and the good and bad were both part of him. For better or for worse.

  “What's the target?” she asked, giving in.

  Aiden hesitated, which clashed with the show of resolve he'd just shown. “Ali has fed me the travel route of an Ishivi Harvester over the next week. We're going to ambush it.”

  Lana took it as a bad sign that the two Ishivi were staring at the captain as if he'd just suggested flying into a black hole. “You want to attack a Harvester,” Barix said flatly. “If you have your heart set on suicide, there are ways to go about it that don't involve the rest of us. I'd be happy to assist you, even.”

  The captain gave him an irritated look. “You don't think we could take one, even in a well set up ambush?”

  Belix laughed scornfully. “Ishivi put out top of the line ships, masterpieces of engineering. All the expensive modifications we've spent years customizing on this scrap heap come standard on a Harvester, and then some. And they're crewed entirely by Constructs.”

  Lana sucked in a shocked breath; the idea of a ship with a Dax at every station was terrifying.

  Still, Aiden didn't seem worried. “The very fact that attacking the Ishivi is unthinkable works to our advantage. In their arrogance they won't even consider the possibility, and we'll be able to catch them by surprise.”

  Barix gave a high, slightly hysterical laugh. “What part of crewed by Constructs was confusing you, Captain? They have no lives outside their duty . . . their vigilance is unceasing. You don't catch them by surprise.” He turned to Dax. “Right, gunner?”

  “The only thing that surprises me is your ability to constantly surpass yourself in unlikeability,” the young man agreed, deadpan. Lana couldn't help but giggle at that, in spite of the seriousness of the discussion.

  “Then I suppose we'll just have to make our attack as perfect as their response,” Aiden growled. “Shouldn't be too hard, when we know exactly where they'll be and can plant an atomic in their path.”

  The Blank Slate and Dormant both stiffened at that. “Atomic?” Lana repeated.

  The captain nodded grimly. “We may not have a missile launcher, but the destructive power of the weapon is so potentially useful we try to carry a warhead or two with us as an option.”

  Atomics! The Dormant inwardly fumed, very inwardly in this case.

  Granted, she'd known the Last Stand occasionally employed the weapons when hitting prizes. In fact, they'd used one against the Fleetfoot in the attack that had seen her planted aboard the Stag pirate ship in the first place. But in spite of that, she hadn't seen any sign that they were still carrying one, and had been all this time.

  What a miserable inconvenience. If she'd known, she could've focused her efforts on getting past whatever security the captain kept on it, and simply completed her mission by blowing them all into subatomic particles. No need to waste time reprogramming combat androids, or fruitlessly trying to get unsupervised time while piloting the ship to crash them into something.

  She would've liked to blame this on her handlers, since they'd told her the Last Stand didn't carry missile launchers, and so sabotaging the ship by blowing it up with its own explosives wasn't an option and she'd likely have to get more creative. But her professional nature didn't allow for such ducking of responsibility.

  She should've known. If nothing else, she should've at least explored the possibility.

  But no matter. There were other ways to critically sabotage the ship, especially once the task force finally caught up to them. Her position in the shields room left her wide open to exploit one such way, which she intended to do the moment she was triggered. For now, though, best let the Blank Slate stay at the fore.

  Lana frowned, deeply bothered by this revelation. “Wait, we've been carrying a massive bomb around with us this whole time?”

  Barix smirked at her. “Look at the wide-eyed kid, afraid of things she has no understanding of.”

  Aiden ignored the man, treating her question seriously. “The atomic is well secured, and has numerous failsafes to prevent it from going off under any circumstances, other than being directly activated by me. It isn't a threat to this ship.”

  Not unless we live long enough for me to make it one, the Dormant stirred just long enough to think wryly.

  “Well, assuming we were insane enough to hit a Harvester,” Belix said slowly, “and did somehow survive, we'd score a fortune in prime genetic material to sell on the black market.”

  Aiden's eyes narrowed. “We won't be selling it. It would just end up back in the hands of Ishivi, which is my primary motivation for hitting this ship in the first place.”

  “Then why exactly take this risk?” the elfin woman demanded. “Just out of the goodness of our hearts?”

  Lana didn't like the idea of piracy in general, but even so she kind of had to agree.

  “No, we'll give up the material to the Caretakers for a reward,” the captain replied. “Ali has assured me that if they breed children with it, they'll provide them with good lives.”

  Barix gave him an incredulous look. “And you believe her, do you? Going from treating Ali as a potential traitor to doing everything she-” he cut off abruptly, eyes widening. “You're screwing her again, aren't you?”

  Lana started in surprise, turning to look closely at Aiden. He was visibly flushing, looking equal parts annoyed and embarrassed. “Not your business,” he growled.

  “It is when you want to suicide this ship because you're thinking with your drive piston,” Belix snapped.

  “Weren't you both all about siding with the Caretakers?” Aiden said, temper obviously fraying. “We have good intel and a chance to make a highly profitable score with minimal risk, while striking a blow against allies of the Deeks and stopping them from continuing in an inhumane practice. More importantly, it's a chance to keep a good relationship with the one group in the universe that isn't trying to kill us. Which we'll probably need sooner rather than later. So who seriously thinks we should turn this offer down and fly away?”

  Lana started to raise her hand, then hesitated. After hearing Dax describe what had been done to him, and in his case merely a mild version of what most Constructs endured, could she in good conscience turn her back on the who knew how many innocent people who'd be spared that fate by hitting this Harvester?

  She settled back in her seat and looked around. Dax had been half glancing at her, as if unsure what she'd do, but when she did nothing he simply sat stoically in his seat as well. And surprisingly, in spite of their protests neither of the twins raised their hands, either.

  Aiden nodded, not looking surprised. “All right, then. Let's plan our ambush.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ambush

  Setting up the ambush was at the same time simpler and far more complicated than Lana had expected.

  Planting the atomic was only the start of that. On the surface it just involved putting the bomb in the ideal location, but before that could be done it had to be put in an EM-shielded case, then carefully scanned to make sure it didn't stand out on sensors. Then they had to decide where to put it by calculating where the ship would need to be at the ideal time to spring the
ambush.

  And that was complicated in itself, because the Last Stand was going to be sneaking up on the Harvester by hiding in the shadow of an approaching comet. One which they had to drag out of its usual path to head in the direction they wanted, which required a lot of calculations to nudge it into the ideal trajectory.

  Thankfully they had plenty of time to pound out those calculations, or more accurately Ali, Dax, and the twins did, since it would take days to move the comet into place. Just in time to ambush the Harvester when it jumped into the small, out of the way system the Ishivi ship would be passing through. On its path to find more genetic material to turn into genetically engineered slaves, or far more rarely superior offspring worthy of being called Ishivi.

  Lana had to admit that, whatever she might feel about piracy, she was looking forward to the chance to take such callously cruel people down a peg. And she was pretty sure Dax felt the same, although at the subject of Ishivi and Constructs a lot of his previous disciplined stoicism returned, and he became uncharacteristically reticent.

  At least, uncharacteristic for the new him. Probably a defense mechanism to a painful subject; she did her best to be supportive about it, considering how understanding he was about her own challenges with her past.

  Or lack of one.

  As for Aiden, in spite of his professed altruistic motivations for hitting the Harvester, from the things he said as they prepared the ambush she got the impression he was looking forward to taking this prize for other reasons. Mostly to do with how the Ishivi had played a decisive role in helping the Movement win the war, and in subjugating humanity afterwards.

  Not to mention the fact that the man had his own personal reasons for hating Ishivi and their cruel practices. Most of those reasons having to do with his unrecognized son, which Lana could sympathize with since most of her motivation was for Dax's sake as well.

  Since everyone was busy with calculations, some of which required coordinating with the others on the work they were doing, the entire crew had gathered in the bridge. Aside from the combat androids, of course. They'd all been working in focused silence, with Lana passing the time studying instruction manuals for emergency repairs to the shielding systems. She would've got more out of them if she was down in the shields room, directly working with the system, but she wanted to keep Dax company while he worked.