Striking Freedom

by Viola Grace

  A soft voice came through the computer, “Lacey, are you there?”

  Yurik recognized it. “Lacey is asleep. Alphy?”

  “Oh, Yurik. You didn’t check in, and I was getting worried. Well, Windy was worried, I just made the call to every headquarters Lacey has.”

  “She’s asleep. She worked hard to meet me here.” He didn’t add that he had stressed her out. He would deal with that.

  “Good. Did she explain what is about to happen?”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “We are going to war against Earth.”

  “Good. I was worried she would skip that out of concern over your feelings. Lacey is always thinking of others and how to make them happy.”

  “How long have you known her?”

  “She was at the station for less than six months before the explosion. After that, we were out of touch for another six months until I came out of my slumber. Once I was out, she was in contact right away with small items arriving via old torpedo casings.”

  Yurik chuckled. “Yes, she has mentioned sending things. I was unaware of the mechanism.”

  “I don’t know how she even found this place. Our signal is cloaked by every bit of tech we have at our disposal.”

  Yurik looked around the room, and he glanced out the window at the ships. “I think she has access to tech you are unaware of. She has been very busy.”

  “How busy?”

  “She has an armada and needs trained pilots to fly them.”

  Alphy chuckled. “Good thing I have an entire level full of simulators. Have her send me the specs, and I will get her the pilots.”

  “I think she has some locals in mind as pilots.”

  Alphy paused for a moment. “She’s made friends?”

  “Not everyone goes along with the Splice. She has chosen allies.”

  “If she is asleep, it is probably night where you are. Get some rest while I mull this over and more closely read through the thousands of dispatches she has sent to me.”

  Yurik chuckled. “Start by analyzing the locations of each of the contact points you just called. The hints as to her allies might lie there.”

  “Interesting. Well done in finding her, Yurik. I was half expecting her to dodge you. She was the last one of us, you know. Now all of us survivors are accounted for.”

  He smiled now that he knew that Windy had her bodyguard. Lacey could stop worrying.

  “Alphy, before you go, what is the plan of attack?”

  “Well, I don’t know about Lacey, but I am going to multitask the shit out of this thing.”

  He raised his brows, and the com went quiet. It was a pretty good answer.

  Chapter Six

  Lacey pulled on her travelling cloak and retrieved her walking stick from the main floor. The warehouse was clear, and it was time to get moving.

  Lacey asked, “Yurik, do you have anything in your ship that you want for this trip?”

  “No. I have built-in weaponry.”

  “Ah. Right.” She made a vague gesture with one fist.

  “Um, I will assume you were mimicking my use of the weaponry?”

  She shrugged. “I need the staff for long trips. I could only use one hand.”

  She walked through the warehouse and hummed as she made her selection. “This one.”

  The metallic blue of the ship marked it as a member of the Neebokan empire. They had tried to use camouflage to hide from the Splice in the stars.

  “I have never seen this configuration before.”

  “We are only using it to get to the main ship in orbit.”

  “You have another ship in orbit?”

  “Of course. Shuttles are impractical for interstellar flight, especially out of the systems. It takes forever. I am in a hurry. I need something more powerful.”

  “There is another reason.”

  She smiled and patted his cheek with her cold, metal fingers. “See, you are learning about me already.”

  He blinked and chuckled. “Right. So, you are not going to lie, but the truth is need-to-know.”

  “Cute and smart. Are we ready to travel?”

  He looked at her and nodded. “I am.”

  “Good. This ship is touchy, so watch and learn. Oh, and I will have your shuttle stored in here while we are gone.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me. It is now part of the attack force.”

  He laughed. “Of course. I realize that, and I expect no less.”

  She was smiling as they entered the shuttle, and she activated the power systems and the roof.

  Once the engines were warming up, she took her bag from her shoulder, and she placed it in storage.

  “What is in there?”

  “Accessories. I don’t want to give the game up too early.”

  Yurik was standing to one side as she moved around, and she could see his eagerness to explore the inside of the alien vessel.

  “You can look around as soon as we are out of the pull of Ikovar.”

  He nodded. “Thank you. I have never seen a ship with this construction before.”

  “It fits me, so I use it more often than I should.”

  She made sure that all the hatches were sealed and a low chime shuddered through the ship. “Okay, she’s ready. We can go now.”

  Yurik nodded, and he followed her back to the command deck. She settled in the pilot’s seat and took the controls.

  “Are you ready? These ships are not friendly in atmospheric conditions.”

  He strapped himself in, and he nodded. “Ready.”

  She grinned, verified that the roof had opened to a sufficient level, and then, she pulled the ship upward with the slide of a toggle.

  There was a short wobble, and then, it cruised upward past the roof. Lacey paused and closed the roof once again. “Okay. Orders are set, your shuttle will be parked and locked in. We are on our way to run a little errand.”

  She slid the toggle, and the ship lurched upward, increasing in speed until she heard Yurik gasping. Lacey winced. “Sorry. I forget. I don’t lose circulation to my limbs, so it is easier for me to ignore the pressure of gravity.”

  He gasped, and his breathing eased as she slowed their progress to a more tolerable speed. “Thanks.”

  “Sorry. I am not used to having a passenger. My reflexes are geared toward my own body.”

  She eased them into space, rode the orbit for a moment until they were aimed in the correct direction, and then, she applied the engines once again.

  The artificial gravity of the ship kicked in, and Yurik got to his feet and rubbed his chest. “That was a bit of a ride.”

  “Sorry again.” She wrinkled her nose. The ship’s navigation panel was set, and she put in the coordinates that she had wanted to visit for four years.

  “Is it all right if I explore?”

  “Certainly. There is a lovely small garden on the upper deck. The plants are unlike anything you will have seen before. They bloom in colours that are not even visible to the human eye.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because they have tried to describe the colours to me. I don’t understand the concepts, but the wonder on their faces was enough to give me an idea.”

  “They?”

  “Yasku and her daughter. Members of the Neebokan elite. They settled on another world, so I bought their ship and brought it here for refitting.”

  “They just sold it to you?”

  Lacey smiled. “We traded it for one of my houses. It is enough for her, her daughter, and her staff to live a proper life.”

  She got to her feet, and she did something that she wasn’t fond of. She folded her legs so that she was normal human height and showed him the way to the gardens.

  “How did you do that?”

  She gave him a small smile. “The legs that I wear are not human in design. They were taken off a surface hopper and refitted to my body.”

  “Your arms?”

  “Initially waldos in the
lab. I had hands created later.”

  He shuddered. “That must have been horrible for you.”

  She smirked. “Oh, it could have been worse.”

  They walked through the ship, and she finally had enough and resumed her normal height.

  “Can I see your legs?”

  Lacey chuckled. “That is a little forward, but sure.” She hiked up her robes and showed him what went on under them.

  She stood in the hall while he knelt and examined her limbs. She watched him run his hand along the metal to the first of three joints above her ankle.

  “They collapse flat.”

  She snickered. “Not unless I have been drinking.”

  “They are on constantly?” He was looking at her tertiary knee.

  Lacey paused. “More or less. They do require maintenance, and I have been taught how to do it.”

  “This is amazing. How are they controlled?”

  “Neural contact and muscle-flexing in the remaining joint. My arms are controlled the same way.”

  He looked at her feet. “You are walking on flat plates?”

  “They work best for most of the environments I am in. The ankle flexes but doesn’t rotate, so walking quietly has taken a lot of practice. Come on now, the gardens are lovely this deep in space. They really enjoy the background radiation.”

  She dropped her robes, and Yurik stepped back. Playtime was over. She was running a tour after all.

  He followed her and asked questions as to the physical characteristics of the Neebokan, their societal habits, and why she had come to possess the ship.

  “The Splice hunted the Neebokan for their medical acumen. Yasku’s mother was an amazing cellular biologist, and Yasku had been held as a hostage so that her mother would work as a researcher for the Splice. When her mother died, Yasku took her own daughter and guards and escaped.”

  “Why didn’t she escape earlier?”

  Lacey snorted. “She’s a mother. As long as her daughter was safe, she wasn’t going to put her in additional danger by running. As soon as the danger of remaining outweighed the escape, they ran.”

  “Oh. How did you meet?”

  “I happened to be on the world she chose for refuge. We discussed her situation, and I offered her the trade. She took it. She and her daughter are now safe from the Splice.”

  “Why were the Splice after them?”

  “Oh, just some encoded research on tissue regeneration files that they can’t find now that her mother has passed.”

  Yurik chuckled. “That is too bad.”

  “I know. I am heartbroken over it.”

  She kept walking. “These are the water reclaim tanks. They pull in every bit of unused moisture and recirculate it, using the plants as a filter.”

  Yurik looked over the wide expanse of the containers. “How much water?”

  “Enough for five hundred human cyborgs for three months. The food stores are the same. There is a nice variety if I do say so myself.” Lacey smiled.

  They continued the tour, and she pointed out the clothing generator, the med center with basic equipment for soft tissue repair.

  “I have tried to get a cyborg repair unit, but there were only a handful of those, and they are all accounted for. On the plus side, we will have one soon.”

  Yurik was wary. “Where are you getting one?”

  “At our destination. Oh, you are going to need to hide inside the ship. I will show you where the smuggler’s hold is.”

  “What?”

  “I can’t bring you in with me. No cyborgs allowed. Well, not free ones.” She shrugged.

  “So, you brought me along...”

  Lacey blinked. “I didn’t really think about it. I assumed that you were determined to get me back to Alphy and the others.”

  He frowned. “Of course. That is my assignment.”

  “Well, after I have made this little visit, I am going to head right to the base so that they can help me out with my little problem.”

  He looked around, and he groaned. “Where is the smuggler’s hold?”

  “Oh, it is this way.”

  She walked with him to the garden, and she picked up a bush, setting it to one side as she displayed the door. “Take a look.”

  Yurik gave her a suspicious look. “You first.”

  “Fine.”

  She opened the hatch and lowered herself into the hole. Her legs weren’t great at descending ladders, so she just fell, landing on the cork-like surface that would absorb the sound of anyone inside.

  She stepped back and showed Yurik the facility. “It is large enough to hold twenty adults. There is food, bedding, cots, and a monitoring unit that shows the entire interior of the ship in case the person in confinement gets bored.”

  “Why not exterior monitors?”

  “That would be noticed. The plants above have strong enough passive radiation signals to mask life signs. When the door closes, the shrub slides back into place. A touch on that panel and the plants to either side will weave into the hide.”

  “Nice and thorough, but I am not going to stay down here while you run your errand.”

  She frowned. “You don’t know what you are saying.”

  “So, explain it.”

  She gave him a dark look, and she climbed up and out of the hold. She waited for him to exit before she closed it again.

  Not saying a word, she walked to the observation deck above the garden. Gripping the railing, she looked at him over her shoulder. “I am going to kill my grandfather.”

  Yurik nodded. “I guessed as much.”

  “He uses cyborgs as toys, tortures them, heals them, and does it all over. Sources have reported that he lines them up in his throne room and he triggers their agony with the touch of his fingers on the arm of his throne.”

  “You are joking.”

  “I am not. Dignitaries who are there to bargain for tech have brought back vids. Many have had their gazes on General, or rather, Emperor Adams.”

  Yurik blinked.

  “Oh, yes. He has taken control of a world, has surrounded himself with flunkies and those who wait on him hand and foot. There are no Earth Defense cyborgs around as security, only the whole are allowed to serve. They are the ones who are worthy.”

  She turned to face him. “If you enter the court, you will be taken and put up on display as you are tortured to the edge of death and then healed so that they can do it all the following day.”

  “What about you?”

  “I am going in as a Neebokan trader. I am looking for a Ssrath tree, and I know that he has them.”

  “What are you bringing to trade?”

  She shrugged. “I have enough funds to manage it. Whatever he asks for, I can pay.”

  “Why are you going?”

  “I told you, or I am sure that I did. I need to kill him. It is a personal thing, but once it is done, we will be free to launch a whole-scale attack against the Splice and against Earth.”

  “Why are you so fixated on attacking Earth?”

  She quirked her lips. “The agreement to send the humans up from the soil, to send them into the path of the Splice, there are still men and women on the ground who are content to give students and the foolish to the Splice as tithes.”

  Yurik frowned. “You are not serious.”

  “Of course, I am. Since you have been in search of me, they have found two rounds of teenagers and children in Splice holds. All have been in the initial stages of dissection. It isn’t going to stop. They are going to increase their efforts as the Splice get desperate. We have to strike both within a matter of days. There is no other way.”

  Yurik inhaled and then nodded. “I am coming with you.”

  Lacey was shocked. “Why?”

  “Because, I am getting the feeling that throughout this mess, you are going to need a witness.” His tone was grim.

  She chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. “I didn’t know you cared.”

  “I might not later, but
right now, you need a keeper.”

  Lacey shrugged. “Okay, but you are going to need a collar.”

  “What?”

  “I can’t bring you in as my pet unless you have a collar.” Lacey smiled. “I think something in black leather would look rather nice. Come with me.”

  To her amusement, he did.

  Chapter Seven

  Lacey didn’t mention the feelings that she was having as she buckled the collar onto Yurik. When she glanced up, he was staring into her eyes.

  “I would apologize for this, but I find it rather suits you.” She smiled.

  He smiled, wrapped his hand behind her neck, and pulled her down for a kiss.

  She was staring at him in shock when he pulled back.

  “I have wanted to do that since I first met you.”

  She exhaled and stood up, out of his range. “That was a surprise.”

  “Was it unwelcome?”

  “Unexpected. I have told you that I am not familiar with the feel of anything aside from clothing against my skin.”

  Her skin was still tingling from the light touch. It hadn’t been a firm kiss, just a light brushing of lips, but her body was rioting like they had been making out for hours, instead of a kiss of a heartbeat in length.

  She shivered and went to get her staff. They were on the final approach to the encapsulated floating island that General Adams called an empire. His empire.

  Lacey buckled her translator onto her neck, and she smiled, whispering in Ikovar. “This is how you will hear and understand. If I speak in English, it will turn into feedback, that is how you will know that things have gone sideways.”

  “Good tip. Do you want to attach my leash now?”

  She nodded. “You will have to keep up.”

  She unwrapped six feet of the leather strap, and she hooked the loop through the ring on his collar.

  “This is going to get weird.” Her words were whispered in the alien language and translated in a conversational tone.

  He grinned and touched his collar. “Weirder than this?”