by AJ Super
“Stand down?” Nyx whispered.
“The Medusa has us on torpedo lock.”
“Putain d’Étoiles.” She clasped her winter clothes tighter and stormed down the hall.
The door to the command deck slid open, and she dropped her jacket and boots to the floor, clomping down the stairs in a rage.
“Kai, do you have to be so dramatic?” Nyx glared at the view-screen on the bridge of the Thanatos.
Kai’s hair spilled across his brow and into his eyes. His fiery red energy flamed around him, too far away for Nyx to twine herself into. He pushed his hair back, exasperated. “I told you to wave me when you got back from Elysion.”
“I have better things to do than talk to you about something I’ve already asked you to do.” Nyx flipped her hand, dismissive.
“You need me. You need my help.”
“Kai, just quit following us.” Nyx crossed her arms, standing in front of the leather captain’s chair, now occupied by a small grey kitten licking her paw while glowing in soft lavender whorls. Her heart skipped, and her stomach burned. This was what she was afraid of. His big hero act was swoon-worthy, and she couldn’t fall for him again. Not after what he did to her mother. She had a crew to think of now, anyway. She had responsibilities. “And can you not solicit information from Erebus anymore?”
Kai leaned forward. The gold ring on a simple gold chain pulled from around his neck and dripped out of his black tee’s round collar. He didn’t notice as it dangled.
Nyx paled.
He narrowed his eyes. “Now’s not a good time to not know where you are. We need to stick together. The new Protectorate’s privateers are coming hard at anyone in the black without credentials.”
Sarama stood, walked to the center of the command deck, and cleared her throat. “What colors are they flying?”
Kai ticked an eyebrow. “Why do you ask, Sarama?”
“We’ll say curiosity. For now,” she drawled.
Kai’s face darkened, and he set his delicate, square jaw. He paused, red fire burning brightly around him, the energy she could see from being infected by her blood. “The privateers are flying African Continental Governance and North American Union.”
Nyx and Sarama glanced at each other. Sarama’s deep chestnut eyes flashed. She sighed. “That’s what we’ve noticed, too.”
Nyx ground her teeth. “Erebus, listen please.”
“Oui, mon capitaine,” the disembodied voice of Erebus whispered over the comm behind Nyx’s ear.
“I need to know what information you’ve been feeding Captain Ionas on the Medusa.” Nyx sighed.
“Basic location information for you and the Thanatos. Basic strategy, weapons, structural, defense…”
Nyx held up a hand. “Did you give him my shower schedule too?”
Erebus paused. Nyx could almost see her furrowing her invisible brow. “No. Should I have? I can…”
Nyx’s eyes went wide. “No! Don’t do that.”
Kai covered his mouth to stifle his laughter. Sarama stood stoically still, her mouth quirking, both knowing full well that Erebus had misunderstood Nyx’s sarcasm, even though they couldn’t hear the AI.
Nyx put a hand on the armrest of the captain’s chair and the little grey kitten pushed her head into her palm. She absently pet the little fluff of lavender energy. “Erebus, you are hereby ordered to keep your mouth shut. You are not to share Thanatos’ information with anyone except current, functioning Thanatos personnel.” She squinted. That should cover Erebus giving unsafe information to Matthews as well. Hopefully.
“Yes, sir!”
Nyx nodded with a small smile. “You’re dismissed, Erebus,” she said curtly.
Erebus sighed audibly. “I don’t know where I’m supposed to go. I am Thanatos.”
Nyx rolled her eyes. “I just don’t need you anymore, sister. Go, do what you were doing.”
Erebus grunted. “The Protectorate’s torture is more entertaining than this by now…”
Nyx looked at her feet and sighed. “I’m sorry, Erebus. I’ll find you. I’ll find you and Phoebe. Soon.”
“I know.”
“You’re going to need help to find them.” Kai narrowed his eyes at Nyx. “Even Erebus knows that. That’s why she was helping me keep tabs on you.”
Nyx turned back to the Medusa’s captain with a stony face. “What’ll you do if you can’t find us, Kai?”
“I’ll always be able to find you, Nyx,” he whispered. “It just may take a little longer.”
“I have to find the queen. I have to rescue her. I have to rescue Erebus. I don’t know how much longer they can hold out.” Nyx ignored him. “It’s our fault the NAU and ACG are out here. There’s something going on in the Protectorate.” She may have crippled the only entities who could have stopped the powerful under-governments from wreaking havoc on the universe.
Sarama quietly stepped back to her console.
“What kind of intel do you have?” Kai leaned back in his chair on the Medusa, Nyx’s father’s old ship.
She closed her eyes. She might still be able to convince him, but this was going to be the hard part. “None. Yet.”
“Yet?” he prompted.
“We’re doing this on our own. I’m doing this on my own…” She hesitated and pushed at her teeth with her tongue. She looked at Sarama, who had a wry smile painted on her deep black face. “They’re Stars. Two of the Seven, Kai. We can’t let the NAU and ACG use them. They’re family,” she whispered.
“It’s a bad idea. You shouldn’t do it alone.” Kai clasped his hands in front of him. “I can help if you let me.”
A small whoosh behind her on the second level of the deck signaled the door whispering open. Nyx turned to see who had walked in. The monstrous figure of Malcam leaned on the rail, piercings glittering, blue miasma gathering around him in electric clouds. Nyx’s white tendrils instinctively reached towards him, and she pulled them back forcefully. She had no reason to control his energy, to control him.
Red, the Thanatos’ Head of Security, stood behind Malcam. They were an inseparable pair.
Malcam glowered at Kai’s image on the view-screen. “If she wants to save her family on her own, she has every right to do it the way she wants. Who are you to tell her it’s a bad idea?”
Nyx snorted. Didn’t they just fight over the same thing? Malcam didn’t want her to go alone just as much as Kai didn’t. So why the change of heart? She shook her head. He was probably just trying to piss off Kai.
“You don’t have enough people. Resources. Nyx? Be realistic.” Kai glared at Malcam.
Nyx’s stomach rolled. Even if it was only face-to-face via view-screen, Malcam and Kai in the same room wasn’t pleasant. They would never get along. They never had.
She lowered her head. “I’m sorry, Kai. I’m going to do this no matter what. Just, stay out of my way. And don’t interfere with Erebus anymore.”
“What? Don’t be stupid. You’re going up against the Protectorate,” he screeched.
Malcam laughed. “It’ll be fun. Won’t it, Red? We’ll come up with something interesting.”
Red’s eyes sparkled.
Nyx felt her chest lighten. If they were so optimistic about their chances, then there was a possibility they could pull off the eventual heist. They could rescue the queen, save the Protectorate, return the black to normal. She lifted her chin. They could do this. “We won’t need you, Kai. Thank you, though.”
“Huh?” Kai’s eyes widened. “You can’t seriously…”
“I’d appreciate it if you stood down. Thanatos out.” Nyx waved at the First Communications Officer to cut the narrow-wave and the view-screen went black. She took a deep breath and turned to the captain’s chair, reaching to the kitten cleaning her head with a paw to pet the grey fluff-ball as she emitted soothing lavender energy. “Good Lily-kitty,” she muttered. “Can you be captain? Can you come up with a plan to rescue Phoebe and Erebus’ avatar?”
Malcam g
rinned. “Don’t worry, Captain. You just get the intel. We’ll do the rest.” He pounded on Red’s back, and she stumbled forward a bit, glaring at him.
Nyx looked at the Second Navigation Specialist and nodded. “Ready for jump space?”
She smiled serenely back at Nyx, her soft grey eyes set in a round cheeked and rosy face. “Whenever you give the order, sir.”
“So, ordered then.” Nyx stroked the immortal kitten in her seat.
The Specialist turned to her console and poked the display.
A gentle lifting sensation caused a brief sense of vertigo as the ship shifted into jump space and sped between the stars.
Nyx exhaled sharply. “To Oglae.”
Malcam eyed her and set his jaw imperceptibly. “To Oglae.”
9
The scruffy man sitting across from Nyx smelled of expensive hyacinth brandy and murumuru butter. The cost of the two belied his stained parka and stringy hair. Dark eyes darting, his thin eyebrows knit as he stared at Nyx. She shifted on a dinged primary-blue plastic stool next to a chipped laminate table-for-two.
The orange tent filled with steam while an old, wrinkled woman with knobby fingers heated noodles in a basket. Outside, the bustle of the market whisked by the flapping tent doors as a couple pushed their way out with scarf-covered faces. The Pascal Fouqué dome on the ice giant, Oglae, while insulated, was still uncomfortably cold. Nyx shivered at the burst of cold air from the exiting couple and tugged the neck of her green sweater up higher around her jawline.
The man fidgeted with the chopsticks in his bowl of noodles, his nails clean and manicured. His dirty clothes and greasy hair were obvious misdirects. A costume. He didn’t want to be recognized for a reason. But Nyx didn’t even know who he was. She narrowed her eyes. He was just someone passing her information. A data card with the location of two of the Seven Stars. Stars that the North American Union and the African Continental Governance were holding captive. There was no real need for him to hide his identity from her since she didn’t even know it.
All she wanted was the information he had. The information about Queen Phoebe and Erebus’ Sia unit. She looked at her steaming noodles.
The man cleared his throat. “If this information tracks back to me…”
She sucked down a gulp of her bitter Oglaen beer. “I’ve already paid you for this information. Quite a bit of money, in fact. I don’t have the slightest clue who you are, why or how you got this information, so it’s not likely I’d be able to sell you out if—if the worst were to happen.” As she spoke, Nyx caught the movement of a vaguely familiar hooded brunette woman with a scar across her cheek sitting down at a table not far from the information broker. “You worry too much.”
“Why are you looking for this kind of information anyway?” the stringy-haired man whispered. “It’s dangerous to cross the NAU and ACG right now. Seems like you’re digging up trouble.”
“You don’t want me to ask you questions, so don’t ask me questions,” Nyx snapped.
The scarred brunette stuttered her stool across the concrete floor. Nyx’s hackles raised. Out of the corner of Nyx’s eye the woman illuminated in a cloud of black thunder. Her stomach dropped. This was a woman she had infected. Nyx didn’t know how, but she had been touched by her blood, and her AI somehow had curled into the scarred woman. Now Nyx had the ability to manipulate the brunette’s life-energy. The dark glow she saw spilling off of her was proof enough. The burn of the white flame within that black energy beckoned her own tendrils to twine around hers, uniting. Tying themselves together so she had control of the woman’s life.
The old lady serving the tent plopped a bottle of beer on the scarred woman’s table with a bowl of noodles. The woman popped the top off the bottle and sipped, stirring the noodles with her free hand.
Nyx clenched her fist, digging crescents into her palm. It was too much of a coincidence for someone infected to show up while she was trying to broker a deal for information on her sisters. Especially someone she vaguely recognized.
She cleared her throat softly and pulled her wispy white energy from the black clouds surrounding the woman. Nyx couldn’t afford to drop bodies during this quiet, secret mission. She needed this information, and she didn’t want this broker to get spooked by a random woman dropping dead suddenly during their meeting. Not to mention, a seemingly healthy person dying would just bring a load of trouble, and she could get detained by the authorities for all the wrong reasons.
“Give me the data card.” Nyx grit her teeth. “It’s time for me to leave.” She pulled a couple large coins from the pocket of her white parka and put them on the table. She raised her voice and looked pointedly at the old lady shaking a basket of steamed noodles. “Patronne, les nouilles étaient bonnes. Merci beaucoup,” Nyx said in Queen’s speech.
The scraggly man held out his hand. “Good luck. I hope you find what you are looking for.”
She grabbed his hand, shook it, and palmed a small black data card that he passed between his fingers. “Merci beaucoup—for your help.”
He shrugged, picked up his chopsticks, and pulled noodles from his bowl, glancing at the woman with the scar at the next table. “Thanks for picking up lunch.”
Nyx put her hands in her pockets, burying the data card in the bulk of her parka and nodded. She spun and pushed her way out of the orange tent into the crowded walk outside where vendors sold everything from mittens and scarves to barbecued poultry and hot beverages in well-crafted market-stalls with colorful awnings and signs. Lights strung over the street made the market look like a permanent festival, and street musicians played on every other corner for loose change despite the cold. The chattering crowd was buoyant and boisterous. Shoppers happily bartered with vendors, and stall-owners cheerfully invited passers-by to view their wares. Nothing like the thrown-together lean-tos of the Downsiders’ market on Elysion. This market was the epitome of economic prosperity.
The smell of barbecued meat wafted through the air, hints of blackened bits enhancing the aroma. Nyx’s stomach growled. She had barely touched her noodles. Operations like this never afforded her a chance to eat. She groaned and tipped her head back. The dome soared above her, frosted and glittering yellow in the bright noon sun like billions of citrine stars sprayed across the curve of the glass. She sighed at the unexpected beauty, wishing she had the time to really appreciate it, and moved quickly through the crowd.
Nyx glanced behind her. A smoldering black glow burned through the press of people. She furrowed her brow. She knew the scarred woman’s face. She had seen her somewhere, but she couldn’t place the woman. Nyx didn’t understand how she had been infected. She never left anyone infected alive, with the exception of Kai, Malcam, Joshua… and ce cafard Coeus. Kai and Malcam lived because she grew up with them; Joshua out of inexperience and pity, and Coeus because she didn’t have half a chance to finish killing him when she was escaping the coup. And who knew? Maybe the truc de merde could help Phoebe and Erebus, since Nyx had left them all behind.
She slid behind a stall selling ice-stone beads. A specialty of Oglae. A clear blue stone found outside of the dome during the water-mining process. It wasn’t precious, but it was extremely beautiful and made gorgeous jewelry that the upper echelons of the mining planet wore daily. The stones had become so popular that the planet started exporting them as well as the water it mined. Nyx squinted. She was fairly certain Queen Phoebe had something to do with that. Nyx seemed to remember Oglae going through some kind of economic crisis, and Phoebe had held some kind of festival where she pulled some political trickery and suddenly Oglae was the leading exporter of water and had a thriving industry in fine jewelry. Some of the Earth under-governments weren’t happy about it, the NAU and ACG especially.
The scarred woman walked by the stall Nyx hid next to. Her hand hovered over a white and gold energy weapon at her waist.
A chill went down Nyx’s spine.
The scarred woman was out of uniform, but she was still c
arrying a Queensman’s weapon. Nyx finally knew where she had seen her. She was a Queensman. The Queensman. The woman was the betrayer who had captured her on Elysion when she was with Underground and the Star of Crius. She had said she’d take Nyx to Phoebe, but she’d double-crossed her and took her prisoner. Nyx pursed her lips. Boucher. Her name was Boucher. She didn’t remember infecting the Queensman then. She only remembered infecting and killing her commanding officer.
Boucher stopped and turned, looking for her in the crowd. Nyx sank back into the shadow of the bead stall. The NAU and ACG controlled the Queensmen now. She couldn’t afford to be caught by this woman.
“Can I interest you in this pretty strand of four blue eyes?” The bead stall vendor smiled at Nyx, holding a beautiful necklace with four shining rondels that blinked in the noon-day light. “They are hand polished until they get this halo-effect.”
Nyx gasped, mesmerized by the stones, and reached, fingers grazing the smooth gems set in silver. So blue they reminded her of Malcam’s eyes. What a thought to have. “They’re beautiful. But I’m afraid I can’t afford something so precious. And…” She glanced at Boucher, meeting the Queensman’s green eyes. The little distraction had cost her, and Boucher stopped, staring at Nyx fingering the necklace. Nyx nodded to the vendor. “I’m in a hurry.” She swept out of the corner between stalls and plowed through the crowd, pushing between a group of young girls ogling a well-made Oglaen scarf and hat set.
Nyx was suddenly thankful she had come alone. Sarama would have insisted on finding a place to hide. Malcam would have started a firefight in the crowded market. Red would have insisted on staying behind to cause some kind of diversion to protect her. Falak, Raphael, and Emlyn were just too inexperienced with planetside operations and would have been burdens. And Yoon—he was just too unpredictable. She didn’t understand him well enough to know what he would do. It was better that she was on this mission alone.
Nyx needed to get back to the Thanatos and into the black. The most important thing was to take the data card back to the ship so she could find her sisters. She would just have to return to the docking dome, and Boucher didn’t seem inclined to make a scene in the crowded market. Otherwise, she would have pulled out her weapon and shot Nyx already.