Liberate: Starship Renegades, #2

by S. J. Bryant

  Contents

  Liberate

  Free Download

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

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  Other Books by Saffron

  About The Author

  STARSHIP RENEGADES: LIBERATE

  S.J. BRYANT

  Copyright © 2019 by Saffron Bryant. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

  Click or visit:

  www.saffronbryant.com

  Read the Prequel for Free

  Download now: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wh88oyyi0z

  A band of rebels. An impossible mission.

  The Starship Renegades have one mission: save the civilians.

  Standing in their way: The Imperium.

  The Imperium killed Kari's sister. She was just a child at the time. But now, Kari won't let them hurt anyone else. She will risk everything to help the Renegades and save the civilians.

  Because if the Renegades fail, hundreds will die.

  Grab a plasma pistol and strap in for this space adventure.

  If you enjoy misfit bands of rebels and adventures through space, then you'll love Starship Renegades. Get it now.

  Download now: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wh88oyyi0z

  CHAPTER 1

  Kari gripped the tablet computer so hard that the screen threatened to crack, and yet she barely felt it because the tips of her fingers had turned to ice. Piper. Alive. All this time she'd been alive!

  Kari's thoughts whirled through her head like a vortex with her sister's face at its center. The way it had been the last time Kari had seen her; seven years old and screaming as she was dragged out of their tiny tent-like house by a burly enforcer in thick armor with a helmet that covered his face.

  Piper's screams echoed back through Kari's memory and squeezed her heart. She felt sick to her stomach and desperate, the same way she had back then when she'd tried to pull her sister free, pounding her fists against the enforcer's armor until her knuckles bled. They'd knocked her aside and the next thing she remembered was waking up to the dull murmur of voices, surrounded by strangers, and all traces of Piper gone.

  She'd spent the next decade trying to find her sister, scrounging through every refuse heap of humanity in search of information. She'd caught a few rumors, and had nearly come close once, when an Imperium transporter got careless. But then nine years ago the news had come: Piper was dead. And it was as if Kari had died at the same time. Her whole world became gray and meaningless and she'd spent each day trudging through a void, the only satisfaction coming from helping the rebellion and occasionally, in secret, destroying enforcers.

  Now it was as if color had come streaming back into Kari's life and the light of it was too bright. It brought tears to her eyes and for the first time in more than a decade she allowed herself a glimmer of hope.

  Her finger trembled as she navigated through the files, it had a brief history of Piper's treatments but nothing specific. They used strange words that Kari had never seen before and could only assume were some sort of code so that if anyone got hold of the report—as she had—they wouldn't be able to make sense of it. But where were they holding her?

  Kari scoured through the files, searching until her eyes stung and a dull throb pounded at her temples. It had to be there somewhere, they had to have a record of where they were holding each of the patients. The same codename kept coming up: Brassard. But where the hell was it?

  She glared out of Ghost's front screen at the starry night sky, and her throat burned. She couldn't get so close to finding Piper again only to let the chance fall through her fingers. If the Imperium suspected for even a second that she'd got hold of this information, then they'd move Piper and whatever chance Kari had would be ripped away. She had to do something. Now.

  She stood and strode out of the pilot's pod with the computer still clamped in her hands. If she'd been able to, she would have dropped the others off on Zenith and searched for Piper on her own. She knew she shouldn't trust them, couldn't trust anyone, but she also knew she'd never get close without their help. She needed the money that Atticus and Wren paid for accommodation, and she needed Ryker's weapons. But that didn't mean she'd trust them. In her head, Kari repeated her mantra; there was always another lie. No matter how far you dug, there was always another lie. Wasn't Piper being alive proof of that? Everything Kari had discovered had indicated that she was dead, and yet that had been more lies.

  Kari's legs trembled as she entered the dining area where the others sat.

  Rusty lay sprawled in his usual corner with a bottle of coolant on his lap while Wren perched on a stool in the shadows by the door.

  Atticus wore bandages over both arms and red blisters gleamed on his fingers. Even so, he had his toolkit out and was fiddling with something on the bench. Ryker must have recovered from the venom because he sat spooning a gray soup into his mouth while he watched Atticus.

  Kari took all this in with a single sweep of her gaze, but it was inconsequential, pieces of meaningless information. Her thoughts were stuck on a single sentence: Piper was alive, and she struggled to do anything to get past the knowledge.

  "What's wrong?" Wren said. "Have they found us?"

  Kari blinked, her gaze drifting across the room to the dark corner. She couldn't quite see Wren's eyes in the shadows.

  The others looked up from what they were doing. The tools fell still in Atticus' hands and Ryker dropped his spoon. It clattered against the bowl as he reached for his gun.

  Kari found Ryker's gaze. He was the only one who really knew about Piper. Kari hadn't meant to tell him, but he'd been adamant that the Imperium weren't necessarily bad that during a heated argument she'd blurted it out. She'd told him about the enforcers coming in the night, about her sister screaming.

  "She's alive." Her voice was hoarse and croaky.

  Ryker's eyes widened. "What?!"

  "She's alive." Kari held out the tablet computer.

  Ryker stood, crossing the room in a single stride, prying the computer from Kari's frozen fingers, and scanning the screen. His mouth dropped open and his gaze locked with hers. "She's alive."

  "We have to find her," Kari said.

  "Find who?" Wren said. "Who's alive?"

  Kari swallowed. "My sister, Piper." The words made her heart flutter and some strength returned to her. She couldn't very well save Piper if she couldn't even stand properly. This was no time for pathetic fainting spells, this was the time for action. "The enforcers took her when she was seven. I thought she was dead but…" She gestured at the computer hanging from Ryker's limp fingers, "she was in the database on the computer we took. She's alive!"

  Atticus dropped his tools and they clanked to the table. "What wo
nderful news. Where is she?"

  "I don't know. All the locations have code names, but we have to find her."

  "Of course," said Atticus. "We can start by—"

  "Whoa," Wren said. She slid off of her stool and moved into the middle of the room so fast that it was like she didn't walk so much as disappear from the corner and reappear near the table. "I'm not saying I'm not happy for you. But I'm not going into another situation like that."

  Familiar rage boiled in Kari's stomach. How dare she! Wren killed people all the time and put herself into dangerous situations. The least she could do was help Kari when she needed it. Well screw her, she could get off the ship right now and a small tip to the authorities about the mysterious Winged Spider—Wren's Guild codename—would serve her right. And then—

  "Whoa, I know that look." Ryker's hand landed on Kari's shoulder. "Breathe a little."

  Kari glared up at him but he'd already turned to Wren.

  "You're not scared of dying?" he said.

  "No," Wren said. "Atoms to atoms."

  "Ah," Ryker said. "But you don't risk your assets—that is yourself—for free."

  "I was trained better than that."

  "And how much would a job like this be worth?"

  Kari's anger cleared enough for her to catch up with Ryker. Of course, Wren didn't do anything unless the Guild told her to, or there was money involved. She wasn't the sort that did favors for friends—in fact, Kari couldn't even be sure she had friends. Then again, neither did Kari.

  "Depends on the risk. For now, if you want my help finding information then I want free passage and board. If things start to get dangerous, the price goes up."

  Ryker looked to Kari. "Well?"

  Kari would have liked to tell Wren to go to hell, but she valued her sister's freedom more than her own pride. She knew as well as anyone that Wren had certain skills that might come in handy later. Free board was a small price to pay for Wren's help, but it wouldn't help Kari buy fuel the next time they landed on Zenith.

  "What about you?" Kari said, looking between Ryker and Atticus. "What's your price?"

  Ryker held up his hands. "We might have our differences, but I'm not going to leave some helpless girl in captivity."

  In Kari's head a small voice whispered 'not a girl anymore' but she pushed it down. Until she actually saw Piper again, she would always be Kari's baby sister.

  "I'll help," Atticus said. "However I can."

  A small spark of warmth lit in Kari's chest. Perhaps people weren't all bad. At least these three were willing to help her, even though they knew it could get dangerous. That was something, and if she—

  "You're all idiots," Rusty said, speech slurred and static-filled at the same time which made it hard to understand. He took a long drink from his bottle and looked around the room, his gaze locking on each of them in turn. "Idiots. Do you really think the Imperium will let you take her back? And that's if you even find her… which you won't."

  "Rusty, that's enough," Ryker said.

  "Idiots. One of you will betray the others, that's what always happens. Who knows, maybe I'll betray you. You can't trust anyone. And a mission like this—"

  "Rusty!" Ryker said.

  "Besides, your sister has probably been brainwashed by now. Do you think they haven't found a way to fry her circuits? Maybe if you—"

  Atticus stood so fast that his chair shot out from under him and clattered to the floor. "Shut up! Shut up right now or I swear I will reprogram you." He snatched his spanner from the table and waved it toward Rusty as if to illustrate his point.

  Silence filled the room.

  Kari's gut squirmed. She hadn't even thought that the Imperium might have found a way to turn Piper against her. What if the sister she remembered really was dead? Replaced by someone else? She tugged at the hunk of katium around her neck—the crude necklace Piper had given her so long ago. Usually she would have stood up for Rusty, but this time she was glad Atticus had said something. She didn't know how much her fragile spark of hope could take.

  "It'll be fine," Ryker said, giving her arm a squeeze. "She'll be fine."

  CHAPTER 2

  Kari kept her face expressionless and tried to walk with a confident swagger through the dank tunnels of Zenith's underside. It was a poor joke—the fact that most of the population lived below ground because of the harsh radiation from the too-close sun meant that the whole damn place was 'underside' but this place was worse. The under-tunnels—as the locals called them—housed the crime bosses, the drug lords, and others far worse than that.

  The dirt floor squelched under Kari's boots, leaving a trail of her footprints through the mud. The deep shadows at the sides of the widened tunnel were broken in places by buzzing neon signs that stood out in outrageous shades of pinks and blues, announcing Roxie's Place and Transient Tavern. Thick smoke wafted through the unventilated passage and gathered at the ceiling like clouds. The acrid smell combined with a sharp, burning scent of alcohol, so strong that it made Kari's eyes water.

  She stared straight ahead, not allowing her gaze to wander to the shadows at the sides of the tunnel. There were people there; she could feel them watching her, but she wouldn't look. She knew better than to invite their attention.

  At least she had Ryker and Wren on either side of her. Coming to the under-tunnels was a bad idea at the best of times, but if she'd had to come with anyone, who better than a gun nut and an assassin? Anyone stupid enough to try to attack them would be lucky to wake up with all their limbs—if they woke up at all. Or at least, that's what Kari told herself as they strode deeper.

  "That's the one," Wren said, her lips barely moving as she jutted her chin to a pink, neon sign: Ollie's.

  "It doesn't look like much," Kari said. Other than the sign, the dingy doorway that led off of the main passage was just like the others they'd passed. A moldy piece of canvas partially covered the entrance, but artificial light leaked out around the edges.

  Wren shrugged but she may as well have yelled in Kari's face. Wren's every movement, every flick of her eyes was deliberate, intentional. And the fact that she'd brought them here, to this place, meant that this was the place she thought they should be, no matter what it looked like.

  Loud music pumped from beyond the canvas door, spilling out into the tunnel and combining with the shouts and raised voices that filled every corner of the under-tunnels. Silence didn't exist down here, there was no time for quiet contemplation because then people might start to think about their lives. So they hid it all with loud music and shouting and—

  Ryker grabbed Kari's arm and hauled her toward the door. "Do you want to wait around here until someone tries to kill you?"

  Kari blinked, breaking her train of thought, and followed Wren and Ryker.

  Ryker raised the canvas while Wren and Kari slipped beneath. The faint smell of rotting, wet fabric caught in Kari's nostrils as she edged past.

  The room beyond seethed with people, all jumping and dancing to the throb of music. In the middle of the crowd, a bar formed an island that reflected the strobe lights from hundreds of bottles.

  The noise and lights combined with the heavy smell of smoke to make Kari's head spin. She staggered after Wren, who weaved through the crowd as if she were nothing more than a wisp of smoke herself. From the annoyed shouts and grunts from behind, Ryker was having a much harder time.

  At the other side of the room, a glass partition separated a lounge-like area from the rest of the club. They entered, and when the door closed behind them it cut out the music like a switch.

  Ryker gave a low whistle. "Impressive."

  "I find sometimes music gets in the way of business." The voice came from a broad-shouldered man who lounged on a plush, purple chair. He wore a black suit and a thick cigar hung from the corner of his mouth. "You're right on time. Sit."

  Kari sat on the edge of a long couch but didn't lean back. If things went bad then she wanted to be able to get up and move in a hurry. Wren an
d Ryker did the same.

  The man grinned. "Cautious folk. Can't blame you for that, times being what they are. Although you've nothing to fear here, as long as you're not bringing trouble yourself?" He raised a single thick eyebrow, like a hairy caterpillar as he spoke.

  "Just business," Kari said.

  "Good, then you can call me Ollie. Would you like a drink?"

  "No, thank you. We're in a hurry."

  "Fine, fine." Ollie took a long pull on his cigar and blew out a blue smoke ring that drifted through the still air and dissipated against the ceiling. "What do you want to know?"

  "Our questions are… sensitive," Kari said. "We have to be sure you won't mention us to anyone. The enforcers for example."

  "Do I look like a snitch to you?"

  Kari wasn't cowed and kept her face expressionless.

  "Do you think I'd invite enforcers here?"

  Kari shrugged.

  "Bah!" Ollie plucked the cigar from his mouth and waved it at them. "I'm no snitch. You said you were in a hurry."

  "We've heard rumors of a facility… an Imperium facility. Codename Brassard. Do you know where it is?"

  Ollie raised his thick, caterpillar eyebrow again. "You're not starting small, are you?"

  Kari's heart skipped a beat. "Then you've heard of it?"

  "Might have, but you know information doesn't come free."

  "How much?"

  "That's rare and dangerous information. No less than two hundred tokens."

  "What?" Kari blurted before she remembered where she was and the odds at stake.

  Ollie grinned behind another smoke ring. "I told you. Information costs."

  "But that's ridiculous! Two hundred tokens—"

  "Let me stop you," Ollie said. "I don't haggle. The price is the price. You give me two hundred, and I tell you what I know about Brassard."

  Heat crept up Kari's neck. She didn't have two hundred. She'd left her last fifty tokens back with Atticus so he could buy fuel while they were getting information. Even if she sold everything she owned she probably still wouldn't have two hundred. But what were a few tokens next to Piper's life?