Deuces Wild Boxed Set: Books 1-4: Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  “I know you’re still being cheeky in there,” Harry informed her rather than answering the question. After a second, he added, “There are a couple boxes of backup files out here that need to go down to main storage. It’d be appreciated if you two handled those.”

  “Got it,” Raynard agreed, and he stretched his arms over his head as he stepped out of the closet.

  There were two boxes sitting by Harry’s feet, and he sidestepped out of the way to allow them to be picked up more easily. It was a testament to how primitive some parts of the outpost still were when the hard copies were still little more than folders, clipboards, and papers piled neatly into a metal box.

  Raynard picked up a box and straightened back up before turning to face Adelaide again.

  “We should do something for dinner once we’re done with all this,” he mused, handing the box of hardcopy files to her. She took it from him without complaint, and he bent down to pick up the second box. They were lighter than the last delivery, at least.

  “Sounds like a plan,” she agreed pleasantly. As they left the infirmary, she called a cheerful, “Later, Harry!” over her shoulder and got a distracted grunt in reply.

  They walked past Melissa on her way to the infirmary, leading a member of the cleaning crew. “Afternoon,” Melissa greeted them pleasantly.

  “Everything all right?” Adelaide asked, turning to walk backward for a moment. “Or did he forget he can’t eat the stew again?”

  “Got it in one,” Melissa confirmed as she tugged him into the infirmary.

  Adelaide faced forward again. She and Raynard were once again alone in the hall.

  Their walk was quiet at first, except for the way their footsteps echoed in the empty hallways. The hallways always seemed empty now, though. Everyone was still getting used to it.

  It didn’t quite occur to them that the hallways were a little bit too empty to still have over eighty people wandering through them. They weren’t quite used to being suspicious yet.

  When they turned a corner, Adelaide slowed for a moment and watched the closet at the end of the hall like she was waiting for something to burst out of it.

  She still had nightmares of walking through familiar halls with the walls covered in blood and the floor littered with body parts. Raynard hadn’t let her see what had been in that closet—hadn’t even told her what it was or let her take a step into the closet—but her mind had been more than happy to try to conjure up dozens of different possibilities. Maybe some of them didn’t live up to the reality, but she was pretty sure a lot of them surpassed it.

  She didn’t tell him about her dreams, either. She was pretty sure everyone was dealing with their own demons. She knew he was. She wasn’t going to foist hers off onto anyone else.

  She shook her head to banish the ghosts from her thoughts and kept walking. She hadn’t even paused long enough for Raynard to notice.

  “We should ask Tracy, too,” Adelaide decided after a moment, dragging her thoughts off the course they had been on by force of will. “He’s still being all awkward and grumpy. I can’t decide if it’s making me sad or annoyed, but either way, he needs to stop it for the good of my blood pressure.”

  Raynard’s mouth twisted as he tried ineffectually to stave off a snort of laughter, and he pressed a kiss to her cheek to distract her from it. An impressive feat, considering they were both still laden and walking.

  “Isn’t he always awkward and grumpy, though?” he wondered dryly, turning so he could face her while sidestepping down the hallway. She scowled at him in return, but there wasn’t any heat behind it.

  Just to make sure she didn’t actually get mad, he added easily, “Sounds like a good plan to me.”

  They could hear people in the main hall as they got closer to it. It sounded like they were shouting, but that on its own wasn’t particularly unusual. They were a rowdy bunch most days.

  As they stepped back into the main hall, though, they realized that none of the raised voices were simple everyday raucousness and all thoughts of dinner fled.

  People were racing out of the building toward the airfield, and everyone was talking over each other, so Adelaide and Raynard had no idea what they were saying. Their panic was clear, though, and they could hear the distant, familiar roaring of a ship’s engine. Without a second thought, they let their armloads fall to the floor with a clatter and joined the crowd.

  “Was there a delivery scheduled for today?”

  “I didn’t see anything on the schedule. Maybe it’s damaged?”

  “Does that look damaged to you? It doesn’t look damaged to me.”

  Everyone knew exactly what it looked like.

  A ship was descending toward the airfield, clearly Skaine in design. Nearly a third of what remained of the colonists had gathered on the airfield, and they stared up at the ship in silent dread.

  It wasn’t until it was nearly ready to land that they realized it was not just any ordinary Skaine ship. Adelaide latched onto Raynard’s arm with both hands, looping her arms around his elbow as if to hug it. “Isn’t that Nickie’s ship?” she asked in a rush, adrenaline-fueled terror rapidly fading and leaving a sort of manic excitement in its wake. She bounced in place briefly, jostling Raynard.

  He nodded rapidly in agreement, but before he could reply, similar observations rose from the crowd.

  It didn’t necessarily mean there was no need to panic, if the trend for her visits continued, but there was no danger from her.

  Nickie’s boots met the ground and she paused, blinking at the crowd. She hadn’t announced herself, and Meredith had gotten them through the defense systems, so she hadn’t been expecting a welcome wagon.

  She lifted a hand to wave. “Hi?”

  Keen cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head with one hand. “We all got a little twitchy when an unscheduled ship turned up,” he explained, somewhere between sheepish and amused.

  That probably should have occurred to her or the crew, but if Keen was not going to call her a dumbass, she certainly wasn’t going to encourage him to. Instead, Nickie simply laughed it off.

  “Trust me, you’ve got nothing to worry about now,” she assured them, planting her hands on her hips. “I handled the Skaines who turned up last time.” She didn’t mention how bloody the “handling” had been. That wasn’t something they needed to know.

  The colonists were quiet for a few seconds, then they all started chattering amongst themselves until the drone of low voices seemed like it would be able to drown out even a shuttle taking off. Nickie didn’t mind. She could see their faces. They had all looked so timid when she’d stepped off the ship, but with just that bit of news, each and every one of them had lit up.

  Keen lifted his voice to be heard over the babble, grinning as he asked, “Will you be joining us for dinner?” He turned to look over his shoulder at the colonists. “It’s been a bit too long since we had a good reason to have a party, don’t you think?” he called to the crowd, looking at them expectantly.

  They didn’t disappoint. A cheer went up, though it was brief and restrained compared to the frenzy when Nickie had replaced their generator. Back when there had been nearly six times as many of them.

  She didn’t want to think about that, though.

  With a grin on her face, she pointed a mock-accusing finger at Keen. “Come the fuck on,” she scolded playfully. “Who do you think I am? Missing a party when there’s one right in front of me?” She scoffed. “Of course I’m game.”

  There was another cheer from the crowd, and a few of the colonists turned to scamper back inside, presumably to get ready for the impromptu event. Nickie, however, was still missing her usual tagalongs. She wasn’t about to run off to a party without them. She peered over her shoulder but couldn’t see Grim or Durq, despite being positive they had been following her a moment ago.

  “Just give me a minute,” Nickie added quickly, then she retreated back toward the ship. She could see Grim standing in the airl
ock talking to Durq as the Skaine hid around the corner.

  “What’s the holdup?” Nickie asked as she got closer. “We’ve been invited to dinner and a party. If you think I’m missing that after the last few days, you can fuck right off.”

  Grim sighed, glancing from Durq to Nickie. “He’s worried,” Grim explained after a moment. “Themis hasn’t exactly had the best experiences with Skaines, so he’s a bit leery about what they’ll do when they see him. Justifiably so.”

  Nickie folded her arms and cocked her head to one side. “Really? He’s, like, what…four fucking feet tall. I’ve met children bigger than him,” she pointed out. “He’s not exactly scary.” She made an expectant gesture with one hand, then started walking back down the ramp. “Come on!” she called over her shoulder. “It will be fine!”

  She grinned when she heard Grim and Durq following her, but the expression fell away once she got a look at the colonists.

  They were staring at Durq like they thought he was going to start separating heads from bodies at the drop of a hat. At some point between Nickie’s last visit and this one, Keen had started carrying a gun, which was mostly hidden under his jacket. He had one hand resting on it as he watched them warily.

  They really were afraid of him. They didn’t look at him and see Durq, who hid under a console on the bridge with some frequency and had issues speaking above a mumble. They saw another Skaine. They saw one of the monsters who had killed so many of them.

  Nickie broke into a jog, hurrying ahead before Durq could get close enough for anyone to decide to do anything drastic.

  Granted, a glance back assured her that wasn’t likely to be a consideration. Both he and Grim had stopped, and Durq was hiding behind Grim like the Yollin was an oversized security blanket.

  Nickie turned to look at the colonists again, and Keen regarded her cautiously. She lifted her hands in a placating gesture for a second before pointing to Durq.

  “That’s Durq,” she stated simply, letting her arm fall. “He’s been with us since I got the ship.” After a beat, she tacked on, “Sort of. Point is, there hasn’t actually been just ‘Nickie and Grim,’ it’s been ‘Nickie, Grim, and Durq’ since Day One.” She planted her hands on her hips. “Understood?”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Keen replied, folding his arms over his chest. It wasn’t quite the response Nickie had been hoping for, but it did mean his hand was nowhere near his gun anymore.

  Nickie sighed, chin dipping toward her chest for a second. “I promise it’s not that weird. He’s harmless. Factually so.” She glanced over her shoulder at him again before looking back to Keen. “It’s a Skaine ship. I mean, I’m pretty sure you’ve all noticed that. There were a hell of a lot more Skaines on it when I first got it, including Durq.”

  She snorted as a thought occurred to her. “Honestly, I’m not sure how he managed to stay in one piece for as long as he did. Within less than a day of me taking over the ship, some of his higher-ups were going to fucking eat him.”

  Keen’s expression pinched with distaste, brows drawing together as his lips pursed.

  “I know, right?” Nickie scoffed. “Who resorts to cannibalism after less than twelve hours?” She shook her head once she realized she was drifting from the topic at hand and cleared her throat. “Anyway, like I said, he’s completely harmless. He’s a friend, and that’s coming from me. I’m pretty sure you can all hazard a guess at my usual opinion of Skaines.”

  Slowly, Keen nodded. “All right,” he agreed carefully. “If you vouch for him, then he’s welcome to join us.”

  “I’m vouching for him too!” Grim called, his hands cupped around his mouth. “Just in case anyone happens to care about that.”

  “He’s very fucking offended,” Nickie deadpanned at his reasonable and good-natured tone, then lifted a hand and waved them both over. Grim started walking, and Durq paused for only a few seconds before scurrying after him.

  For a moment no one else moved, then Adelaide broke away from the pack to close the distance between her and Durq. He ground to a halt, staring up at her nervously until she offered a hand.

  “I’m Adelaide,” she told him, her voice only shaking a little. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Durq stared at her hand slightly skeptically for a moment, then reached out to shake it. His grip was as timid as everything else he did, but maybe that was for the best. Adelaide seemed to find it sort of endearing, finally cracking a smile.

  “Come on.” Grinning, she clapped him on the shoulder and started to lead him toward the rest of the colonists. “I can introduce you to everyone before dinner.”

  Durq followed her hesitantly, glancing over his shoulder briefly to make sure Grim was still there. Only once he was sure that Grim was following a few feet behind did he actually pick up the pace.

  Nickie hung back for a moment while Adelaide led Durq through the crowd and everyone began to trickle back inside. It was impossible to deny that Durq was a Skaine, but he was harmless. Maybe there were others like him somewhere, assuming they hadn’t been eaten. Maybe not every Skaine was a monster.

  Just most of them.

  “You coming or what?” Grim called, standing outside the door to the main hall. “People with super-speed shouldn’t be falling behind.”

  With a brief snort of laughter, Nickie took off at a jog to catch up.

  FINIS

  Author Notes - Ell Leigh Clarke

  August 12, 2018

  Thank you!

  Massive thanks as always go out to MA. As you may have seen on the video snippet on fb, the banter really has continued. And although we seem to have left the age-old debate of meat or no meat on pizza, he’s found a constant stream of other things to give me grief about – including the cover art!

  Huge thank yous also go to Steve “Zen Master” Campbell and the JIT team who work tirelessly to make sure that all slips are caught, corrected, and the files are uploaded on time.

  Thank you so much folks. I truly appreciate all your efforts. :)

  Reviewers

  Massive thanks also goes out to our hoard of Amazon reviewers. It’s because of you that we get to do this fulltime. Without your five-star reviews and thoughtful words on Amazon, we simply wouldn’t have enough folks reading these space shenanigans to be able to write full time.

  You are the reason these stories exist, and I’m thrilled you’re enjoying the adventures of Tabitha and Nickie!

  Readers and FB page supporters

  Last, and certainly by no means least, I’d like to thank you for reading this book…and all the others. Your enthusiasm for the world and the characters is heart-warming. Your words of encouragement and demands for the next episode are what keep us at the keyboard writing hour after hour.

  Thank you for being here, for reading, for reviewing, and for always brightening my day with your words of support on the fb page. You rock, and without you, there really would be no reason to write these stories.

  Special Thank You to Our Patreon Supporters

  I’d also like to add in a special thank you to our new Patreon supporters. If you caught the P.S. in my last notes, you will have seen a link to join up as a patron.

  Massive thanks going out to all who joined. No matter what level you joined at, it’s great to have you onboard! I love seeing you over there.

  And for the uninitiated…

  What is Patreon?

  It’s a platform that allows creators (authors, etc.) to share their works, kind of like a membership site. Here you can see exclusive content, pictures, blurbs, videos…everything. All in one place.

  What do you get?

  Well, that depends on the level you’d like to activate (anything from $2 upwards), but everything is on the table: from exclusive behind-the-scenes photos, Author Shenanigans videos, and the exclusive directors’ cut of my author notes… (Including the baaaaaad and juicy stuff MA doesn’t let me publish!)

  [Edit: WTH? You are going to place shit in here jus
t so I delete the crap… I’m just Patreon…something. There is a really GREAT word that needs to go here, but I’m not thinking of it at the moment. I’ll leave it to someone who uses words for a living.]

  [Ellie edit: nooooo. I don’t understand what you said, but to clarify, it’s gonna include the stuff that you say not to publish in the Author Notes! hahahhaa]

  And that’s just the surface-level stuff.

  What you may have already realized as you’ve gotten to know me is what you see in the books is just a tiny fraction of what goes on in the Ellie'verse.

  There’s a lot of thought and consideration that goes on with bigger-picture stuff in order to apply the social commentary that gets slipped (like a micky!) in with your action-packed drama-filled scifi. And this is what I love to share with folks who are interested in thinking beyond the boundaries of their normal experience.

  Plus, all the usual behind-the-scenes stuff you’d expect from a VIP experience. This includes more personal posts than on fb, as well as exclusive videos, Author Shenanigans, and even live Q&A with yours truly. You can even have characters named after you!

  If you wanna check out what all the fuss is about, have a gander here:

  https://www.patreon.com/ellleighclarke

  She means “Yes please”

  You’ve heard me mention Sven, our friendly local barista. (He appeared on my first fb live, in fact.) He’s English, with a London accent, and Danish ancestry, but he’s been Americanized. For the most part. He’s been here much long than I have and is married to an American, so he’s far more integrated with the social nuances.

  The other week, Amy and I were in the coffee shop. I ordered up some refills and Sven looked over at Amy, who was sitting at the bar just around the corner from the till where I was talking to him. He asked Amy if she wanted a refill of her iced coffee.

  She said, “sure.”