by Eric Warren
“How much does she know?” Box yelled, heading down to the main engineering access.
“A lot,” Cas said, following with Evie close behind.
“Then it’s on the comm equipment,” Box replied. “Everyone shut up until I find it.”
“If you’d done a level four diagnostic like I told you to, we wouldn’t be having this—” Cas began.
“Shhhh!” Box said.
Cas shut up, taking a glance at Evie. She was struggling to keep a smile from her face. Box began opening panels and removing equipment seemingly at random, taking things apart bit by bit.
“He can get all that back in one piece, right?” Evie asked.
“If he can’t I can,” Cas replied. There wasn’t a piece of this ship he didn’t know by heart. Probably only about twenty percent of the original ship remained since he’d first purchased it.
“Are you going to stand there and gawk or are you going to help?” Box said, removing the primary communication drive from its housing.
“We’ll check the holds,” Cas said, leading Evie away. Veena wasn’t foolish enough to put the tracker there, but then again she would probably suspect Cas wouldn’t use the holds unless he was transporting contraband for her.
“I just want to say,” Cas began as they reached the first hold in the floor. “Thanks for what you did out there. You could have left me.”
“No, I couldn’t,” Evie said, bending and helping him move the piece of floor aside. “You knew I wouldn’t let you stay out there alone. I’d have been too afraid you would have hooked up with pirates and been on your merry way.”
He avoided her gaze, instead inspected the hold. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Cas, look at me.” He raised his eyes to meet hers. “Can I trust you?”
He sat back, his legs folded underneath him and his arm dangling uselessly at his side. “Sometimes I don’t even know if I can trust myself.”
“That’s not a ringing endorsement.”
“It’s the truth.”
She sighed, sitting back herself. “Is that what you were really planning to do? Notify the Plegarians the Tempest was out there?”
He shook his head. “My first thought was to send a communique to every hostile species on the colony, but that was never a reality. After what happened on the Achlys I couldn’t put people in danger like that. The Plegarians seemed like the next-best solution. I set a meeting with them, planning to slip them some intel that a ship was spotted in the area and then watch them go crazy trying to find it. It would have been just enough confusion to slip away unnoticed. Until you couldn’t trace our undercurrent, that is.”
“And what about me and Laura?”
“I was pretty sure you could take care of yourselves. At least until things calmed down. It’s not like I would have been stranding you in the middle of the desert.” Cas opened a secondary hold under the first one, searching for anything out of place. It was hard to squeeze into with his arm flopping to the side but it was easier than looking at Evie’s disappointed gaze.
She was silent while he searched, sitting at the edge of the hold, looking down. When he was sure there was nothing out of the ordinary he managed to hoist himself back out. There was no avoiding this now.
“I guess the question is: what are you going to do now you know I’ve tried to betray you?” he asked.
She watched him for a moment, as if she was searching his soul, looking for something redeemable in him. He didn’t expect her to find it.
“I wish I knew.”
26
“Box?” Cas said, approaching him from behind. The robot was deep into the communication equipment, parts and components strewn all around him. He’d recruited one of the former prisoners to hold parts as he removed them from the main comm hub. The man’s arms were full.
“I’m working on it!” Box said, his voice muffled from the depth of the contraption
Cas glanced over to the man with his arms full. He had ochre skin with a mop of blonde hair cut close. Various scars ran down the sides of his face, probably a result of being Veena’s prisoner. His clothes were a simple jumpsuit suitable for different climates. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Setsemeh,” the man replied.
“What happened to you?” Cas noticed Evie lurking around behind him. He wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t want him out of her sight or if she was genuinely interested in the man.
“Kidnapped, off Paxi. Me and my brother. But I haven’t seen him since. He must have gone with another group.”
“How long ago?” Evie asked.
“Three months. Since then I’ve either been in a cell or stasis. I can’t thank you enough for saving me. For saving us.”
“Do you know what you were being sold for?” Cas asked.
Setsemeh shook his head. “She told us we were going to Cassiopeia Optima, but then a couple days ago she rounded a few of us up and stuffed us in that crate. But we weren’t going to be inside long enough to go into stasis. She had us hooked up to life support. That asteroid was definitely not Cassiopeia.”
“She intended to sell you to the Plegarians,” Cas said. “Probably to service their ships.”
Setsemeh shuddered. “Those ships are so small. I would have not survived long.”
Cas thought about it a minute. “If you were conscious, could you hear everything from inside the crate?”
Setsemeh opened his mouth to answer.
“Will you two shut up!” Box called from where he was. “Until I find this thing there’s no telling how much is getting out.” He was right. Veena could still be listening to their every word.
“Commander?” Laura called from the cockpit.
Evie turned, making her way to the cockpit. Cas followed, and when he arrived he saw what had concerned Laura: four of Veena’s fighter ships in pursuit. They must have been the ships Veena’s people had used to arrive on D’jattan. The young girl Cas had rescued stood behind Laura’s chair, watching the screens intently.
Cas turned to Evie. “Can you outrun them?”
She jumped into the pilot’s seat as Laura moved to the co-pilot position. “We’ll see. I don’t know what this ship can do but for all the parts I paid for it better be able to outrun a couple class two gunners.” She switched off the autopilot and immediately began evasive maneuvers. Thanks to the gravity dampeners the inertia on the ship didn’t change, the only difference was it seemed like the starfield outside was twirling in different directions as Evie navigated.
Cas ran back to Box. “You need to find that thing. Now,” he said.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” He was much more agitated than usual.
Cas turned to Setsemeh who continued to stand there with his arms full. “What did you do before you were kidnapped? What was your job?”
“I am an architect,” he said. “For orbital platforms.”
“Close enough,” Cas said. “Drop that crap and help him look.”
Setsemeh set the equipment on the ground and went to work disassembling parts. Back here with no windows Cas couldn’t tell what was going on, everything still felt perfectly still. He pulled his comm from his pocket and tapped it.
Nothing happened.
He glanced over to the disassembled communications array and mentally smacked himself. Instead, he ran back to the cockpit, his useless arm still flapping at his side.
“I can’t get away from them as long as they know exactly where I am,” Evie said, her voice strained as the starfield moved left and right. A plasma burst streaked by. “And they’re getting closer.”
Cas glanced down to the young girl. “You, come with me. It’s all hands on deck.” The girl nodded, following him back to Box and Setsemeh. “What’s your name?” he asked as they approached the parts all over the floor.
“Yance,” she replied, her voice soft.
“Yance, I need you to fit in through where they can’t. You might be able to find it faster. Box will
tell you what he’s looking for.”
“A long-range iridium tracker, right?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, stunned. “How…?”
“My parents used them to track interstellar creatures. It was the best way to keep tabs on a tunnel guardian or a grandgrade.”
“Ah,” Cas said, “Okay, get in there and help them.” The ship shook for the first time, knocking them off their feet.
Evie yelled from the front: “These guys are all over us!”
Cas had landed on his bad arm but fortunately hadn’t felt much. He struggled to stand, finding Setsemeh and Yance doing the same. Box had remained half-inside the comm unit.
“Box,” Cas yelled, “Tiny hands, put them to use!”
Setsemeh motioned for Yance to come over just as the floor shook again. Cas ran back to the cockpit where Evie and Laura were doing their best to keep Veena’s fighters off them. At least he was getting his cardio in.
“Doesn’t this thing have anything more powerful than a quad cannon?” Laura asked, running her hands over the controls.
“Unfortunately not,” Cas replied, watching the fighters buzz by out the window.
“It’s not worth wasting our reserve fuel if there’s nowhere to go.” Evie struggled with the controls. “I’m basically just flying in circles until we can lose them.”
The ship shook violently and Cas hit the side wall.
“Breach in one of the hab pods!” Laura said.
“Seal it off,” Cas replied, pushing himself away from the wall. “They’re designed to be self-sustaining. We can eject it if necessary.”
“Got it!” Box called from the back. “You’re clear!”
“Now you’re talking.” Evie narrowed her eyes and jerking the ship into a barrel roll that sent the starfield spinning. Even with the gravitational dampeners Cas could still feel the pull of the g-forces. His little ship had never been put to the limit like this. Evie hit the accelerator and the ship shot forward, swinging around the asteroids of the belt. Car’pr, the system’s star, reflected light off the cockpit as she dove down, coming close to an asteroid. She slipped behind it, pulling them to a near-stop when two of the fighters shot right past. Evie turned immediately and shot the other direction. “Laura, if they get on our ass shoot the hell out of them.”
“I’ll do what I can,” she replied.
“Drop the damaged hab suite,” Cas said. “It has its own power source, you can use it as a mine.”
Laura nodded, preparing herself. “There they are,” she replied. She hit the eject button and there was a loud clank as the hab detached, falling back behind it. “They’re ignoring it.”
Cas watched as the two fighters adjusted their headings, so they’d go around either side. But when they were on opposite sides of the suite Laura fired a single shot, detonating the suite and destroying both fighters in the process.
“I thought you said you were an exobiologist,” Cas said, impressed with her targeting skills.
“I am. Everyone needs a hobby.”
“Still have two more,” Evie said. She got a funny look on her face. “What is this ship primarily made out of?” She jerked the controls to the right. A fighter appeared beside them, just barely strafing the hull.
“Uh, it’s a composite of cyclax, galvanium and—”
“That’s all I need to know,” she replied, adjusting her heading for the closest fighter.
“Wait, you can’t—” Cas began as the ship shot forward, on a collision course with the smaller ship. “This is my ship! You can’t just ram it into—”
The entire ship shook with a reverberation as the vessel ahead of them exploded from the impact. The fourth and last fighter took off in a hasty retreat back toward the colony. Evie swung the ship around and set an erratic course to throw off any further pursuers.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” Cas said as Evie stood from the pilot’s chair.
She shrugged. “It’s my ship now, technically. I knew your hull reinforcements could handle it. Those class-twos are pitiful things, might as well be made out of aluminum. I just needed to make sure the vibrations of hitting something like that wouldn’t shake us apart.”
“I’m glad you found it satisfactory,” Cas replied through his teeth. He caught Laura looking at them but she glanced away as soon as he noticed.
They made their way back to Box who, along with Setsemeh and Yance was repairing the comm system. “Should be good in another day or two,” Box said, inspecting components. “It’s always easier to take apart than put back together.”
“Let me see the tracker,” Cas said, holding out his one good hand.
Yance came over and dropped the device into his palm. It wasn’t much bigger than his entire hand but had a giant crack down the middle from where Box had disabled it. “You found it?” he asked.
“She crawled in there and within two minutes had it,” Setsemeh said.
“It wasn’t hard.” Yance beamed. “When you know what you’re looking for.”
“I bet she used one of her Val cronies to get it in there in the first place,” Cas said. Val were about the size of a human child. Millenia ago they’d left Earth to settle Valus which had a much higher gravity, resulting in smaller people over a few generations. Though many left the Coalition these days despite Valus being inside the same solar system as Earth.
“Yep. And it was monitoring not only our comms but our conversations as well. Veena knows exactly what we’re looking for and everywhere we’ve searched so far,” Box said.
“Which means she’s probably already out there looking for it for herself,” Cas replied.
“Wait,” Evie said. “Does she even know why she wants this ship?”
“She knows its valuable,” Cas said. “And that’s enough. If she does happen to find it before we do, it will be bad for everyone.”
Evie tapped the back of her hand. “Yes Commander?” Laura said from the cockpit.
Cas glanced at her for a moment before remembering Coalition comms had their own built-in network. They didn’t rely on a ship to maintain communication like Cas’s outdated pocket model did.
“Any sign of pursuit?” Evie asked.
“None.”
“Set course back to the Tempest. It’s time to get the hell out of here.”
27
The good news was Evie hadn’t put the cuffs back on Cas. The bad news was she hadn’t said another word on the short trip back to the Tempest.
As soon as they landed, however, she’d gathered her sword and then ordered a very satisfied looking Laura back to the biology labs, making sure to compliment her on her performance. Cas thought the ensign might burst from the endorsement.
He and the former prisoners were all to report to sickbay while Box stayed on the ship to finish the repairs. Evie even gave Box authorization to use the maintenance crew in Bay One if necessary, prompting a confused look from Box to which Cas could only shrug. He had no clue what was going on in Evie’s mind.
They reached sickbay and Cas met doctor Xax for the first time, a Yax-Inax. She was bipedal and lean with small feet balancing her slender frame. Like all Yax-Inax she had four arms, two with three fingers and two with four, set parallel to each other in a series and her head was ten percent larger than a human’s. And instead of two eyes she had six black globes on the upper part of her face, each one with beautiful aquamarine blue sparkles inside. It gave the Yax-Inax the ability to see things many other humanoids couldn’t, such as wavelengths of frequency and light. Below the globes was a small mouth. Cas noticed her rank was that of full Commander. Which made her the only person on the ship ranked higher than Evie, other than the captain of course.
“Please, take a seat, we’ll be with you in a moment,” she said in perfect English. One of the nice things about the Yax-Inax was they worked for years on perfecting the speech of whatever culture they assimilated themselves into. Their native tongue was much more complex; outside of the vocal range of man
y species. When the Yax-Inax joined the Coalition they decided on their own to expand their vocal prowess by learning as many languages as possible.
“What is this?” Xax said approaching Cas. Her lower arm with three fingers picked up Cas’s lifeless one, while one of the arms with four fingers ran them over the shoulder wound. “Nerve killer. I hate these. Please come with me.”
Evie stopped Cas for a moment. “When you’re done, report to the captain,” she said. “And I don’t mean after you’ve had a shower. I mean immediately.” Her eyes said she was dead serious.
Cas nodded, as if by that small token gesture he had accepted his fate. He’d hoped there might be a chance at redemption after what he’d done; but he knew he’d only been fooling himself.
She left still carrying her blood-stained sword out of its sheath as Xax took a scanning device to Cas’s arm. As soon as she was gone Cas glanced around at the rest of the former prisoners, Yance, Setsemeh and the others, all sitting on their own beds as the nurses and doctors inspected them as well. At least he’d done something. It wasn’t all for naught.
***
Cas stood at the door to Greene’s command room, having fielded dirty looks from the rest of the bridge staff with the exception of Zaal. But at least he’d been allowed to come here without an escort. It felt like a test; as if Evie had placed a bet with Page if he’d actually show up or try to run again.
“Come in,” Greene’s voice said and the doors slid open.
Cas, his arm healed and working like nothing had happened, walked in to find Evie sitting in one of Greene’s two chairs on the closest side of his desk. Greene stood, his imposing figure framed by the window behind him. The planetoid the ship had been hiding behind loomed in the distance.
“Please sit, Mr. Robeaux,” Greene said, only taking his own seat after Cas had complied. “I was afraid there for a while you might not be coming back.” He smiled.
Cas chanced a glimpse at Evie whose own visage remained set in stone. There was no telling what she’d already reported. Screw it. He was tired of living in fear of what she may or may not do.