by Leslie Chase
“The trouble is that there’s only one of you,” she said. Before I could object, she kept going. “You’ll win any fight, I know that, but you can’t be everywhere. Sooner or later someone will get lucky and kill one of us, and even you can’t wipe out the whole syndicate.”
“Even if you can,” Michaela added, “some other gang would move in, and they’d see us as a threat they need to get rid of. Unless we take over the syndicate’s turf?”
Her bitter laugh showed that suggestion to be a joke, and everyone looked uncomfortable. Silence embraced the table until Lily broke it.
“Look, if no one else is willing to say it, I am,” she said. “It’s not us the syndicate is pissed at, or it doesn’t have to be. Delkor’s the one who killed their guys, and it was him in his stasis pod they wanted to start with. If we handed him over…”
She trailed off and shrugged, the rest of the humans staring at her. Carrie broke the silence.
“We are not giving Delkor to those monsters,” she said, white-hot anger burning in her voice.
“Hey, I’m not saying it’s a good idea,” Lily said, holding up her hands. “I’m saying it’s something we have to consider. He’s not one of us, right? Not on the crew? And we always said we’d back each other over any outsiders.”
The crew muttered, but Carrie let go of my hand to lean on the table. “No. We’re not going to do that. No way.”
I squeezed her close, kissed her neck, and shook my head. “Your companions are right, beloved. Right that you need to have the conversation at least.”
She stood abruptly, turning to look at me with wide eyes. “Not you, too?”
“No. I do not think it’s a good idea, but your crew deserve a say in this plan. And it is not fair to make them discuss it in front of me.”
I stood too, the metal stool creaking with relief as my weight left it. Head nearly touching the ceiling, I looked down at the human females. Yes, as long as I was in the room I’d intimidate them — and I did not wish them to follow me through fear alone.
“I will wait outside while you discuss this,” I told them. “If you do not wish to have me with you, I will find another way to protect Carrie. But that is not negotiable: I will protect her.”
With that I turned and stalked away towards the airlock, leaving the women staring after me. No one said a word until I’d stepped inside and let the doors slide shut.
As soon as the heavy doors closed between us, I felt the lack of my bond-mate. She might only be a few paces away, but with the hull of a spaceship between us it might as well be a lightyear.
If they left me behind, the Ladies’ Choice could fly off and abandon me here. Nothing I’d be able to do about that, and the possibility gnawed at me.
I did the right thing, I told myself. If they don’t discuss the possibilities, they’ll always resent it. But the primitive part of my mind that longed for Carrie’s touch wanted to ignore that risk, to take the chance. It wasn’t as though the five humans would defeat me in a fight.
Stupid idea; hurting them would hurt Carrie, and the idea of my actions harming her was intolerable. Shaking off those thoughts, I turned my senses to the surrounding networks. Where the station’s dead zone had been silent, here there were several competing signals to choose from. The Ladies’ Choice had one, of course, but I ignored it. Other ships too, carefully locked to keep out snoopers.
I was interested in the station’s systems, though. Whatever was left of them, they were the best source of information on the decades since the war. My implants reached out, looking for any signs of other Caibar. They wouldn’t be easy to find, which was both a blessing and a curse. Military implants like ours were hard to trace — otherwise our enemies would use them to find us. I had the codes to identify my own pack’s signals if they were broadcasting, but I should be safe from observation as long as I was careful.
Unless someone extremely skilled was watching for me, or the technology had made a leap in the decades of my cold sleep. I sighed. Termek would have a better idea, this was his skillset. Until I found him I’d have to rely on my limited skills.
The network was patchy, poorly maintained, signals bleeding off into nothing at the edges. A few bright nodes where someone with skill and resources kept the system functioning, a lot more bodged together by people doing their best with neither the skills nor the tools to do it right.
No sign of my pack showed in the network and I sighed. Too much to hope. But… there, on the edge of the network, was that the ping of a stasis pod? I’d have missed it, except that it bore the same signature as the pod I’d rested in. Another escape pod from the Golden Duke Lyian.
It might be one of my companions. Or, more likely, an Imperial escapee from the battle. It might even be empty, activated by accident. I had to know, but I had no time to investigate now. Like so many other things, it would have to wait.
My mate came first, and I would not abandon her.
15
Carrie
“Okay, ladies, what the fuck?” The question exploded out of me as soon as the airlock slid shut. Delkor was outside, away from me, and it hurt.
Which might not be a great sign for a relationship. I pushed the traitorous thought away and glared around the table at the crew.
“Lily’s right,” Michaela said. “We have to talk about it. Whatever happened between you two, you can’t bring a fugitive aboard without consulting us.”
I opened my mouth to retort, to remind them who’d brought our group together. Shut it with a snap. They had a point: I was in charge, but that didn’t put me above the rules we’d agreed to.
“I know, okay? I know, but what happened between us was him saving my life. Without him I wouldn’t be here now, so I will not agree to selling him out to the syndicate.”
Frustration bubbled up inside me, showed in my words, but the others nodded slowly.
“We don’t even know if they’d want him now,” Jen pointed out. “The syndicate was keen to get hold of a Caibar in stasis, but awake? How would they even take him?”
“And that’s if they don’t blame us for the deaths,” Michaela added. “But keeping him with us… I don’t know. If he goes away, the trouble will follow him. While he stays with us, we’ll be in their crosshairs too.”
“If we can repay our loan, they might call it the cost of doing business,” I tried, but it was a weak argument.
“Not as long as Syrcen’s in charge,” Michaela said. “Sorry, Carrie, but it won’t be that easy.”
The others nodded, none looking happy with the idea of kicking Delkor off the ship, but it really didn’t matter. They were thinking about what was best for the crew, and that was the only way to make a decision like this.
“There is another way, though,” I said. “Look, you’ve all seen him, and he knows the old Imperial tech like no one else alive. He was here when it all still worked; we can use that. If the Syndicate won’t take the treasures we can find with his help, someone else will… and we’ll have their protection.”
The others looked at each other, and I forced myself not to show the tension filling my body. Keep my face and hands relaxed, don’t smile too much, don’t swallow. The captain is always confident, especially when she’s not.
“We all agreed. No men on the crew.” Jen folded her arms and stared at me across the table as she answered. “It was your rule, Carrie. Something about having a space for ourselves.”
Okay, it was true. Annoying but true. I glowered at our medic, trying to marshal an argument. Something to convince them.
“He’s different,” I started, before cutting myself off. “No, that’s unfair bullshit and I’m not going to try it. Any guy one of us wanted to bring onto the crew would be different, right? The point of the rule was so we didn’t have to have this discussion.”
“So why are we?” Jen tried to soften the blow with a sympathetic smile, but against the mood around the small, stained table, it didn’t make things feel any more welcoming. “Not
hing says he can’t be your boyfriend, Carrie, just… not crew. Having a guy in port doesn’t sound so bad, right?”
That was exactly what I’d be telling Jen if our positions were reversed. Bringing a boyfriend with us on the actual trips would upset the balance we’d carefully built and paying an extra share would break our finances.
Hell. The extra cost of food and water would be enough to doom us if we didn’t bring home a treasure on our next trip. We were already deep in the hole, we might be at war with our creditors, and digging ourselves out of debt had to take priority.
But while leaving Delkor behind wouldn’t be exactly like handing him over to the Syndicate, it would have much the same effect. By the time we got back from our trip, either he’d have slaughtered the mobsters or he’d be dead.
And as much as I respected his fighting prowess, I doubted even he would win that war alone. Leaving him here would get him killed, which I wouldn’t allow. I couldn’t. The bond between us was too strong: maybe it sounded hokey, but even being separated from him by an airlock door hurt.
No, I had to convince the others to bring him with us. Otherwise something would give, and no matter what, it wouldn’t be pretty.
“Because he’s bigger than the rule,” I said. Someone sniggered and my cheeks burned. “No, not like that. Well, okay, like that too, but that’s not what I meant. Look, when we agreed to the rule, it was to stop any of us meeting someone and insisting on bringing dead weight along, right? But Delkor is some kind of supersoldier, he’s a treasure himself. We can’t sell him, obviously, but we shouldn’t turn him away, either. And if he stays behind, he’ll probably die.”
No one looked convinced and my heart sank. “Okay, what’s it going to take? He’s useful, strong, smart, and speaks a lot of the local languages. You can’t say he wouldn’t be a great addition to the crew.”
My cremates looked at each other, then back at me. Jen spoke for them. “It’s not that we don’t think he’d be useful, Carrie. It’s that he’d take over, be in charge. We signed up with you, not a stranger you shacked up with.”
“So if he stays under my command, you’d be okay with it?” I asked carefully, wondering what Delkor would say to the idea. His dominant, demanding personality was so much a part of him that I could hardly imagine him taking my orders… but if it got past the others’ objections, it might be worth trying.
They still didn’t look like they trusted the arrangement, so I sweetened the deal. “I’m not going to force him on you, right? That wouldn’t be fair. So say we take him out on one trip. Just one, which keeps him out of the way of the Syndicate and lets him show us what he’s got. And he served aboard the Golden Duke before it was wrecked. He’ll be able to load us up with high value stuff, stuff we can settle our debt and still have cash left over.
“As soon as we’re back on station, we decide. If any of you don’t want him to stay he’s off the ship for good.”
Jen nodded. “Good enough for me. I just hope he doesn’t steal the ship while we’re out in the dark.”
It took an effort to hide my relief as the rest of the girls nodded. None looked enthusiastic about the idea, but no one tried to talk me out of it. I’d call it a win.
“Great,” said Michaela, the last to agree. “I’m going to have to keep an eye on him. More work I didn’t need.”
Despite her grumbling, she nodded her agreement. We had a plan and a deal.
Delkor prowled back onto the ship like a hunting animal, his tail lashing behind him and his eyes darted from face to face. Did he expect an ambush? Or was this his normal caution, and I was noticing it for the first time?
“We’ve come to a decision,” I said, bringing his focus back to me. I still felt safe, but the others… I didn’t know how dangerous he’d be to them in this mood. “You can come with us as crew on a trial run. One trip out and back, and then we’ll see how things have gone.”
His eyes gleamed. “What is your destination?”
No point in hiding that. “We’re going back to the Golden Duke Lyian’s wreck. It’s the only place we can gather enough high value salvage to pay off our debts. Especially with your help: you know the ship and where to find the good loot.”
I wasn’t sure how he’d take that, but he smiled and nodded. “Of course. The ship was rich with treasures to salvage and I will be happy to help you recover whatever survives. I accept your offer, Captain. This is your ship and not mine, so you are in charge. Though I lack some equipment for such work.”
He’s taking this suspiciously easily. I didn’t trust it, though I still trusted him. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, that I stayed certain of, but I didn’t believe he’d follow orders meekly. I’d expected at least token resistance so what was he up to?
“What are you missing?” I asked, buying time while I tried to figure him out. Both he and the others were going along with my plan, and that was suspicious. Things rarely went so smoothly for me.
“I need a spacesuit,” he answered. “I won’t be much use to you if I’m stuck in the ship the whole time we’re scavenging. Some weaponry, as well.”
“No way.” Michaela answered before I could. “We can sort you out a suit, but we’re not going to arm you. What would you need weapons for, anyway? You look deadly enough as it is.”
Delkor smiled at that, or perhaps he bared his teeth at the challenge. The difference wasn’t easy to spot.
“You never know what you might find out there,” he replied, but he let the matter drop.
“I will still need a suit, unless you have one for non-humans,” he continued. “Without one I can only operate in a vacuum for about ten of your minutes.”
Ten minutes longer than a human. Was there any way the Caibar weren’t superior to us? Still, he had a point. I didn’t see how he’d be able to fit into our suits, not with his build and his tail to consider.
“I want us underway fast,” I said. “We’ve already waited too long, and sooner or later the Syndicate’s goons will want to search the ship again. How quickly can we get a suit?”
Bella’s gaze flicked up and down Delkor, and a momentary pang of jealousy burned bright in my heart. Stupid, I knew both of them well enough to be sure I had no reason to worry, but that’s how powerful Delkor’s hold over me had become in the short time we’d known each other.
“I can modify one of our spares,” she said, nodding to herself. “Okay, two of our spares. Lots of work, but it means we can leave right away rather than risk a trip to market. I’ll have time to do the work on the trip out.”
“Good,” Delkor said, making me frown again. Far too easy. “Let’s get moving, before the Syndicate tries to come aboard again.”
I’d have thought he’d want something better than a stitched-together suit between him and the vacuum of space, but he didn’t seem the least bit worried. Instead, he practically vibrated with urgency. Was that something to do with our mission? Or did he just want to get me away from the Syndicate? Either made sense, and in the end it didn’t matter. He was agreeing to my plan, so I could hardly object.
“Right then, let’s get moving,” I said, shooing the girls towards their stations. “The sooner we have a hold full of treasure, the sooner we get ourselves out of this mess.”
16
Delkor
The improvised suit stank, its joints clung too tight, and there was no space for my tail. I’d wrapped it around my torso before squeezing into the patchwork suit: not comfortable, but it worked. I didn’t complain — the Ladies’ Choice was taking me where I wanted to go, and the suit functioned well enough as long as I didn’t need to fight in it.
Approaching the ship where I’d last seen my pack put a spring in my step, though I doubted any of them were still aboard. According to Carrie, she’d found my pod wedged near the end of the launch tube — and all of my pack had gone ahead of me.
Perhaps friendly ships had found them, but the chaos of that final battle made it unlikely. Wherever they’d ended up
, the Golden Duke Lyian’s logs should have some clues. If nothing else, it would have the ID numbers of the stasis pods.
All those logs were backed up to the Archive. The thought made me smile; I might yet complete my pack’s mission on the Golden Duke Lyian and find both my pack and the way Home.
That made it worth signing on as the lowest ranking crewman of a human ship. It stung my pride, and if my mate hadn’t been captain I would have snapped halfway through the journey. With her in command, I managed to keep my frustrations at bay, but it still chafed.
Seven days of work aboard the ship, patching failing parts and cleaning working ones. Hard work, though everyone pitched in and did their part. Over the trip I grew to respect the human crew. They knew their business, and though they were informal, none of them shirked their work.
Their attitude still irked me, especially their lack of respect for Carrie. She might not mind, but I did — Carrie wasn’t just their captain, she was my mate.
At least we were together, which made the frustrations of the journey easy to put up with. All bar one, which she made infinitely worse.
Every little smile she gave me when the others weren’t looking made my hearts race. Every stray touch tested my self-control, made me want to drag her to her cabin, her bed. Somehow I restrained myself, but by the end of the seven-day journey, I ached for her.
The same need and frustration showed in her eyes, and I knew that, as soon as we were no longer captain and crewman, our coupling would be epic.
Soon, I promised myself. For now, the mission comes first. Deep-rooted instincts snarled at me, and it was a relief to arrive at the Golden Duke Lyian. The end of the mission was in sight.
I followed Carrie across the gulf of space, watching her space-suited form drift towards the tumbling hulk of the Imperial flagship. It was familiar and strange at the same time. The last time I’d made this crossing I’d had my pack at my back, now my companions were six weak and vulnerable humans.