“I’ll ask Jay to transport over,” Declan said. Before Vari could object, he was already speaking into his vox. A few moments later Jay stood a few yards away. He looked around, taking in his surroundings.
“You’re Jasani,” Garder said in surprise.
“Yes,” Vari said simply. She’d been monitoring the men’s thoughts since they’d gathered together around the dead Doftle. Knowing that three of them had betrayed their co-workers and friends had made her cautious. That Borat and his partners hadn’t known about the Doftle helped, but they’d still endangered the entire ship. So far though, these men had thought of nothing but helping in any way they could.
“Vari,” Jay said, approaching her with worry in his eyes.
“Jay,” she said, her voice softening. She was still disappointed with the three of them, but Declan’s words earlier had helped a great deal. As she looked up into Jay’s dark eyes she realized that it was entirely possible that any one of them could be hurt, or even killed. If that happened, she didn’t want the angry scene that took place that morning to be their last memories of each other.
Jay smiled briefly, just for her, and she reached out to touch the back of his hand lightly before returning his smile. His eyes widened in surprise, then softened. He nodded, his eyes blinking rapidly, understanding that he’d been forgiven. He didn’t know why since he hadn’t done anything to deserve it. He hadn’t even had a chance to apologize yet. He promised himself in that moment that he would never let her down again.
The entire exchange took but a few seconds and the only one who noticed it was Declan. The power and depth of his pride and love for her nearly overwhelmed him. Oddly enough, knowing she’d forgiven Jay served to make him more acutely aware of how unfairly they’d treated her. And of how deeply they’d hurt her.
Jay stepped away from Vari, then knelt down beside the Doftle Declan had killed. “I see now why you looked at me the way you did when I said they were much like a ten year old child,” he said to Vari. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“Aunt Lari taught me years ago that confusing short with small could be a serious error,” Vari said.
“A lesson I will not forget,” Jay said. “I wonder why these things won’t transport.”
“I looked for a disrupter but didn’t find anything,” Vari said. “Well, I didn’t strip him because…ugh. I just checked his pockets and belt.”
“We’ll check him more closely later,” Jay said, standing up. “If we can't figure it out we'll need to put them all in one place until we reach Jasan.”
Vari started to nod when a soft noise caught her attention. She turned just in time to see the small feline creature that she’d spotted earlier creeping up behind her, and an enormous hammer flying toward it from behind. She instantly reached for and threw the dairi from her sleeves, one with each hand, knocking the hammer out of the air with one, and wrapping the other around the wrists of the man who’d thrown it.
She’d used a throw that caused no initial harm to the man. If he made a single wrong move she had only to twitch one finger in a certain way and the dairi would break his arms.
Before anyone else had a chance to process what had just happened, she was already standing in front of the tiklee with another dairi in one hand, ready to throw. When she was sure no one was going to attack, she relaxed her stance. “There is no need to be concerned,” she said, summoning both dairi and returning all of them to their places on her clothing. “This creature will harm no one without provocation.”
She ignored the stares from Garder and the other men and turned to look down into the round orange eyes. “Remain close to me,” she said softly. The creature nodded its head and it took all of Vari’s will power not to reach out and pat it soothingly. She’d never had a problem with touching animals since she couldn’t read their thoughts, but she knew better than to touch a tiklee. Keeping her hands to herself, she turned back around to face the men who were all staring at her and the animal in surprise, including Jay and Declan.
“Whatever you do, do not attempt to touch her,” she warned.
“Will it attack?” Declan asked, frowning worriedly at how close she was to the animal.
“Only if cornered and threatened. But those sharp little things on the ends of her fur that look like stingers are, in fact, stingers. The poison will kill in seconds, which she is fully aware of. She will do her best to stay out of everyone's reach to avoid causing accidental harm, but she is very tired and weak right now. It's best that everyone keep their distance for their own safety."
“I’m sorry,” the man who’d thrown the hammer said. “I just saw something sneaking up behind you and acted before thinking.”
“I appreciate your attempt to protect me,” Vari said politely, knowing he told the truth. “It was an honest mistake.”
Jay and Declan studied the unfamiliar creature. It wasn’t easy to resist putting their bodies between Vari and the animal, but she’d proven herself over and over again. They had to trust that she knew what she was doing.
“How much time will you need before we can freeze Control?” Jay asked.
“I have no idea,” she replied. “It depends on how long it takes us to climb back up there, and what, if anything, I can get from them.”
“We need to establish an open channel," Declan said. "Then I can tell you when we're ready and warn you ahead of time."
"Give me a moment to set it up with the ship," Jay said before stepping away.
“What can we do?” Garder asked. “We’d like to help if we can.”
“Can any of you restore the systems the Doftle shut down?” Declan asked. “Primarily communications. Security isn’t high on the list of priorities at the moment.”
“The tech engineers can do that,” Garder replied. “I heard the Doftles talking about some of them getting away. They were going to kill the rest, then decided to put them in a locked supply room on Deck Five instead, in case they were needed.”
“There are three Doftles on that deck,” Declan said. “We can’t risk releasing the techs until we dispose of the Doftles.”
“I have a question,” one of the men said. “Why did they do this? Why hijack a ship with so many people on board?”
“They need slaves,” Vari said.
“But there’s only twelve of them. Did they really think they could pull this off without being stopped?”
“Yes, they did,” Vari said. “Doftle arrogance is immense, and for good reason, I’m sorry to say.” Her eyes widened suddenly. “Rajne!”
“What is it?” Declan and Jay both asked, moving closer to her.
“The Doftle got aboard the Leaper by hiding in two large shipping containers. If they’re forced to risk their own lives for any reason, they always prepare their revenge ahead of time. Just like the Xanti.”
Declan hissed a long stream of what Vari considered to be an impressive list of curse words in at least six different languages. If the situation hadn’t been so serious she might have smiled.
“What am I missing?” Jay asked.
“Remember what happened to our brothers?” Declan said.
Jay paled, remembering all too well how an empty Xanti ship, rigged with explosives and hidden by Blind Sight, had collided with their brothers’ ship, destroying it and killing everyone onboard. “Yes, I remember,” he said quietly, then cleared his throat as he dragged his mind away from the past. “This ship is too big for me to cover both the hold and Atmosphere Control, and you must remain at Vari’s side.”
“We need to pull Kai in. Captain Finch will oversee things for us.”
“We don’t have to do that,” Vari said. “These men can be trusted, I know this for fact.” She hid her smile as all six men stood a little straighter despite their weariness.
“I do not doubt your word, Vari, nor do I doubt these men. But they’re tired, and they’ve been under a great deal of stress. Also, Kai mentioned earlier that the scan did not penetrate the contain
ers. I thought it was a precaution against import inspectors, and it probably was, but it could also be hiding explosives.”
“I agree, Declan, but I still…,” she trailed off, and Declan nodded as her eyes lit with understanding.
“I doubt they left Doftles in those containers to guard them,” he said. “But it’s a possibility we can’t ignore. We need to pull Kai in.”
“You’re right, of course,” Vari agreed. “We can’t take chances with these men’s lives.”
She watched Jay step away to speak on his vox again, wishing she could've thought of a reason to keep Kai on the Bihotza. Actually, she wished she could think of a reason to keep all of her men on the Bihotza.
Vari went completely still, not even breathing as she ran that thought slowly through her mind once more, and then a third time. She began to feel dizzy and quickly made herself breathe while wondering when she'd started thinking of the Dracon-Bats as her men. Her inability to come up with an answer did nothing to calm her.
She reminded herself of the decision she’d made in the shower just a few hours earlier. They’d try to protect her from doing the things she had to do. She knew that. Didn’t she? Or did she?
Jeez, she thought, when did I develop the ability to tell the future? They messed up. Declan apologized. Enough said.
Then, suddenly, Kai was walking straight toward her, his eyes flicking to Jay who stood to her left, then Declan to her right, before fixing steadily on her. He stopped right in front of her and she was reminded of the true peace she felt when surrounded by all three of them. Kai reached out to touch her lightly on the shoulder. A simple, brief touch that somehow managed to fill her with warmth and ease her worry.
“You are well?”
"Yes," she replied, reaching up to brush his hand before he withdrew it. His eyes met hers in surprise, and then he smiled to let her know he understood that he’d been forgiven.
Kai stepped back, ending the moment that the four of them had just shared. She closed her eyes and tried to imprint it on her memory for all time.
Declan waited until he was sure Vari had fully composed herself. Then he caught her eye before nodding toward the men standing nearby. She was surprised, and nervous, and wished he would do the explaining. For whatever reason he wanted her to do it and she certainly wasn’t going to argue with him in front of these men.
“There’s a small chance that the Doftles left one or two guards in the containers they used to gain access to the ship,” she said, speaking loud enough for all of them to hear her over the noise of the engines. “There is a very big chance that those same containers contain enough explosives to destroy the Leaper if things don’t go the Doftles’ way. Experience has taught us that they’ll be rigged to go off if a specific signal isn’t received at regular intervals.”
“Ah hell,” Garder said rubbing his hands over his face and releasing a deep sigh. He looked at the other five men, all that remained of his crew. They all nodded. “You tell us what we need to do, and we’ll get it done.”
“You’re a brave man, Garder,” Declan said. “You’re all brave men, but we won’t be sending you alone.”
“That’s a relief since all we know about bombs is to run the other way,” Garder said, cracking a smile that eased the tension. Declan looked at Vari and nodded for her to continue, so she did.
“We have to get the containers off the ship, but the timing has to be exactly right. Moving them too early will alert the Doftles that we’re here. Waiting too long after the Doftles are neutralized could end in the explosives going off while still on the ship.”
“How do we get them off the ship?” Garder asked.
“By using transponders,” she said, holding one up. “Kai will be able to eliminate any Doftles that may be in or around the containers so that won’t be a problem. He’ll need someone to guide him to the hold, though, and then we’d like at least one of you to handle one transponder while he does the other.”
“I will do this,” Garder said. “Who else?”
“We’ll all go, just to be on the safe side,” one man said and the others agreed.
“No,” Garder said. “Jack, you and Sean need to go with Alan and Jay to Atmosphere Control. Daton, Lou, and I will go with Kai.” Garder turned back to Vari. “What do we do once we get the go ahead?”
“The transponders must be activated, and then tossed on top of the containers. Do not, for any reason, enter a container, and don’t toss a transponder inside of one. There’ll probably be sensors inside that'll set off the explosives if tripped.”
“When a transponder is activated, our transporter automatically locks on and transports it, and whatever it’s touching, to a previously designated location,” Jay said, moving to stand beside Vari. “In this case, they’ll be sent far enough from the ship for the explosions to detonate harmlessly in space. Our Captain has already set our transporter to automatically send into deep space anything marked by a transponder, so it’s critical that no one activates a transponder to transport themselves until the containers are moved off the ship and an all clear given.
“Unfortunately, since these transponders cause an automatic override of the transporter, they only have a five second delay from activation to transport. You’ll have to wait for the signal from Declan or Vari, then immediately activate the transponder, toss it onto a container, and then run like hell so you don’t get caught in the transport field. Every second will count so you’ll have to move fast, but carefully, too. We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Kai removed a spare vox from his pocket and handed it to Garder along with two transponders. Garder looked at him in surprise.
“Just to be on the safe side,” Kai said with a grin. Garder chuckled softly. He slipped the transponders into a pocket of his coveralls and put the vox in his ear, listening as Kai explained how to use the open channel they’d set up.
“What about the Doftles guarding Transport?” Vari asked.
“I’ll handle them when we’re done in Atmosphere Control,” Jay said. Vari swallowed hard and nodded. Then she looked at the three men who were going with him.
“Once Jay eliminates the Doftles, you need to arm yourselves with their weapons. Just in case. Don’t forget to unlock them if necessary.”
“We’ll remember,” the one called Alan said solemnly. "And we'll remember how to use them against these things, too."
There were a few more discussions about signals and timing, then Declan turned to Vari. “Ready?”
She started to nod, then spun around and approached Jay. He was going up against six Doftle virtually unaided and it scared her. She couldn’t just leave without saying something. He turned around as she approached and smiled down at her.
“Please be careful,” she said softly before she could stop herself. Jay hesitated, then decided to hell with it and raised one hand to gently cup her cheek. When she raised her hand to cover his he thought his heart would burst with joy.
“I love you, Vari.”
Vari’s eyes widened in surprise. She wanted to respond, but the lump in her throat prevented it. Instead she gave his hand a gentle squeeze, and he smiled to let her know he understood. She released him, stepped back and turned around, spotting Kai several yards away. He was standing with Garder and the other two men going with him, but his eyes were on her.
He touched the center of his forehead with one finger and she understood that even though she’d forgiven him, he still wanted to apologize. She smiled, accepting his apology by returning the gesture. Then he tapped his temple. She frowned, but he waited and, after a moment, she understood. She lowered her shield and focused on him, trying to filter out the other mental voices around her.
“Can you hear me?” She nodded. “Is there a Flaridian gesture to tell someone you love them?” Vari bit down hard on the inside of her cheek while her hand touched her heart, then her lips with the tips of her fingers. He returned the gesture immediately, then said, “Go kick some little blue butts
. Just don’t let them put a scratch on you, babe.”
She nodded, then glanced at Declan, her vision blurred by tears she could no longer hold back. With a quick gesture to the tiklee standing beside her, she began jogging back toward the stairwell, Declan at her side. They went through the door and began climbing the stairs.
Declan didn’t suggest using Air, partly because he needed to preserve his energy in case they needed it for what was coming, and partly because he knew that Vari needed a few minutes to calm herself. He knew she was worried about Jay taking on so many Doftles alone. He was a little worried himself, even though he knew that of the three of them, Jay was the most patient stalker, and that he had the best aim.
There was more to her feelings than worry though. There was some fear, some hope, some sadness and frustration and determination and he didn’t know what all else. Just trying to figure out what she was feeling was giving him a headache. He wondered how anyone could feel so many different emotions all at once.
He pulled his senses back and thought about her emotional farewells to Jay and Kai. She cared about them. There could be no denying that. After the way they’d treated not only her, but their family, all those they’d once called friends, hell, all of their own people, he found it difficult to understand why they’d gotten so lucky. He didn’t think they deserved it.
When he looked up at Vari who was a few steps ahead of him, the strange looking creature at her side, it hit him. Maybe they didn’t deserve the happiness she brought to their lives. But she surely deserved whatever happiness they could bring to hers.
Declan sighed quietly. There was so much about Vari that they didn’t know. So many things they didn’t fully understand. But none of that mattered. What mattered was that she was their berezi, and it was time they started putting her first in all things.
After climbing about half way up the stairs to Deck Five, Vari paused at a switchback platform and turned to face the tiklee. “Your size tells me you’re running low on both energy and strength, and I know that staying in your tiklee form for too long is dangerous. We’re alone here, so this is a good time and place for you to shift. If you decide to remain as you are, that’s your choice, of course, but we won’t be able to take you any further. I’m afraid your current form would attract far too much attention.”
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