by Debra Jess
"He figured it out." Shade released his hand, probably guessing that holding it wasn't a good idea while contradicting his order. "Whoever this Silt guy is, knows what our destination is, if not why. He's going to intercept us at Vaynix, not here."
"He had access to your records, your logs. You gave him the key?"
A slight rueful smile appeared. "Yes. He had access to the profiles I created for every member of every pirate ship we encountered. Including the Queen of Hearts."
"So he didn't really make the connection. You figured it out and paved a path for him." Whose feelings was he trying to salve, his or hers? More than likely his own because Shade didn't appear to need any words aside from her own. Maybe she never did, but he wanted to give her those words anyway.
"Couldn't be helped." A gentle shrug brushed away his concern for her. "I had a job to do. I did it to the best of my capabilities because I thought it would get me closer to the Majesty of the Stars. I was wrong, but it doesn't change the fact that this Hyeph Silt knows what I know."
"He may know what you know, but he doesn't know that we can shift." From what he'd observed during his one encounter with Silt was that he didn't have an ounce of Shade's raw talent for strategy. Still, even a disarmed opponent could kill his crew if he wasn’t careful. Only Shade knew what her logs contained. If Silt manipulated the data the way she did, it was possible he would catch them in a rare moment of distraction and take advantage of it.
Hart would have to make sure to keep his attention on the Queen of Hearts, not Shade, no matter what he might or might not feel for her. He loved this ship, and he'd worked hard to bring a loyal crew on board. No one—not even a brilliant, enticing ex-Manitac captain—would destroy everything he'd built here. He’d rather die than give her that opportunity.
If that was her true purpose. To have any chance at a future with this woman, he needed to trust her. But he had to be cautious, for the sake of all involved.
"So we're still going to Vaynix?" she asked.
"Yes, we'll have to get there before the Silt and find a slip to hide in."
"How do you plan to do that?"
He suspected she already knew but humored him for the sake of others. "Since the Silt isn't here, and the colony didn't get a clear view of us before Queen of Hearts changed shape, instead of leaving the system and returning, we'll stay in system. Once we break orbit around the sun, we'll request expedited use of the slipstream. The colony will be none the wiser."
"Assuming that she's right," Mirin grumbled loud enough for everyone to hear, "and the Silt didn't delay their deceleration to trap us between the colony and the slipstream."
"We'll find out in two hours." Darvik nodded to Mirin, acknowledging the possibility. "Hang on tight in case we have to shoot our way out. We'll take out the port side of the Silt first. Just to be sure."
Chapter Sixteen
Kelra returned to her corner while the Queen of Hearts shifted, observing how the bridge crew worked under pressure. Quick and efficient, they reminded her of the bridge of the Silt. Her own crew had trusted her, right up to the point of her arrest. For the first time, she wondered if any of them cared. Chasing pirates had its hazards, but she handled her crew with the same careful precision as Hart, except he acknowledged his shortcomings and knew he could rely on others, such as Naz and Johza, to fill in his gaps. Never in her life had she ever revealed any deficiencies. She'd seen what Manitac had done to those who relied on others to prop up their imperfect command.
Leave it to a pirate to show her that relying on others wasn't a weakness. The Queen of Hearts had her captain, but Hart knew his captaincy would come to an abrupt end if he lost the faith of his crew.
The ship’s ability to shift—ingenious, albeit noisy. She tried to hide her wince each time a high-pitched squeal of metal echoed across the deck, scraping its way along the skin. Hart chuckled the first time he saw her reaction, and she couldn’t help wrinkling her nose at him before he turned back to the holo. If necessary, the Queen of Hearts could survive on stolen fuel and parts if they wanted and never have to dock. Yet they docked anyway. Perhaps even pirates needed to get away from each other, despite their tight-knit group.
Had she ever felt the same way? Thinking back over her record, she hadn't thought so. Yes, she'd disembarked during her tours when orders allowed her to, but what had she done during those times?
She planned. Oh, well, there were a few individuals she slept with because they were available and somewhat interesting, but she never used any of the professional sex workers. Therein lay too many possible traps for other competing officers to use against her should they view her as a competitor for a position they coveted.
The elimination of competing officers through scandal happened all the time. Which made this Hyeph Silt person all the more maddening because she couldn't, for the life of her, remember him. Hart, on the other hand, she would remember forever. Just looking at his profile—chin set at a defiant tilt, daring his own ship to defy his design; his nose prominent, but not obvious; the scoop of his goatee trimmed to circle around his lips and meet the tuft and mustache without touching his cheeks. And those cheekbones…
She had to turn away before anyone else on the bridge caught her staring.
Right now, she had more than enough on her hands with Hart looking almost giddy as the ship groaned under their feet and along the bulkheads. Wondering about the specifics of how he found this Hyeph Silt and bribed him for information now wouldn't get her to the Majesty of the Stars. Later, if she had a later, she would investigate that particular beast.
Changing the size and shape of a ship so no one would notice the Queen of Hearts slipping into their systems, stealing what they needed, and leaving as quietly as they entered was both crazy and brilliant. How many times had Hart been right in front of her and she never even saw him?
“Shift fifty percent complete, Captain.” Kelra could have sworn Johza glanced at both her and Hart at the same time, but that could have been a trick of the flickering lights as the bridge jolted forward and then stopped.
The more she learned about Darvik Hart, the more she wanted to know. Why pirating? Was it really a tradition for him? Or was it because it was all he knew? Had he ever dreamed of doing anything else?
From the corner of her eyes, the compression gate opened, and Nazaniel Cuff stepped through. Hart’s best friend had to have dreamed of another life to leave a pirate ship for the rigorous world of medical school, but then he had returned voluntarily.
Looking at Hart right now, his eyes almost glowing as he counted down the time to each juncture of the shift, she wondered what motivated him. How could someone who found such joy also have the same level of anger in them? Did any of the Silt's crew ever see her like this? What were they thinking if they did?
Not that it really mattered. No one on the Silt would welcome her on board.
Another loud crunch had her covering her ears with her hands. She could only guess that a mistimed fold in the bulkhead would cause havoc with the ship's structure, leading to a catastrophic breach. Was this a normal noise or the catastrophic variety? Her heart thudded faster. No one would survive such an accident, regardless of where they were in space. Cruising through the sun's corona would only make their deaths that much faster.
After another hour of rumbling and groaning, the ship quieted down, but Kelra remained in her corner, holding her breath as she waited to see what happened next.
Rusa swiped the image before her so it displayed the clock. "Counting down to break from orbit."
Hart kept his gaze on the clock as he said, "Heading 2187.6174."
Breaking too early could send them into the sun, while breaking too late would spin them away from the colony.
Rusa counted down. "Three…two…one…"
Hart gave the command, "Accelerate and turn!"
The ship’s internal gravity compensated for the sudden thrust. The overhead clock disappeared, replaced by a spray of stars.
Before she realized it, Kelra had left her corner to stand behind Hart. He didn't spare her a glance but knew she was there nonetheless. She could tell by the way he leaned back ever so slightly toward her, the collar of his vest rubbing her shirt where it hung past her waist. Holding her breath, she prayed to the Stars and Guardians that she'd guessed right and the Silt wouldn't be there.
"No sign of the Silt," Mirin said.
Rusa brought the clock back up again. "Counting down to outer shield drop. Three…two…one…"
Hart gave her a nod, acknowledging that she had been right. "Drop the outer shield, but keep our cannons hidden."
They were still exposed, but at least they had weapons.
Checking the displays, Rusa told him, "Still no sign of the Silt. There are four Manitac patrol craft, but no other warships." She changed the angle of the display toward small planet with a colorful spot marking the colony. "Two dozen cargo ships, two inbound, the others queuing to enter the slipstream."
They'd done it. For the first time since the operation started, she let herself breathe freely. This time Hart did look up at her, with a slight smirk and one eyebrow raised.
All she could do was shake her head at him and give him a relieved smile so big it hurt her cheeks.
"Get Traffic online," he said. "Let's see how they feel about us jumping the line. The faster we get to Jarvis, the faster we'll get to Vaynix. We need to get there before the Silt does."
The bridge crew didn't need her for this part. At this point, she was more of a distraction, so she took a risk and leaned forward to whisper in Hart's ear. "I'll see you later."
Instead of looking at her, he reached up and clasped the hand she'd laid on his shoulder, offering her a slight squeeze. She squeezed back, running her thumb along his, a teasing promise of what was in store for him later, and then headed toward the compression gate.
The window opened outside her quarters. The pirates who weren't part of the bridge crew were emerging from their own rooms, ready to resume their duties. Two of them nodded at her, but the others didn't, following their colleagues through the compressor window. She counted it as progress.
Once inside her room, the general all-body ache leftover from Ruintalos grew stronger. Staying on the bridge overtaxed her system. Cuff would no doubt give her a scolding for ignoring his orders to rest, but first she had to eat. Grabbing a nutri-pack out of the box sitting on an end table, she called up the kitchen and placed an order. Based on what she'd eaten previous and what most ships had on hand, she figured a small sandwich of leftover dorsala would satisfy her just fine.
Mayla delivered her food along with billibloom juice. At no point had Kelra asked for Mayla specifically or mentioned billibloom when she spoke with the pirate covering kitchen duties. Perhaps Mayla used her own initiative? Puppets would still need supervising, even if they were assigned to clean the kitchen, though. She couldn't imagine a pirate stuck with kitchen duty using this kind of initiative, unless they served the captain.
"Thank you, Mayla."
The woman didn't respond, only backed away from the door as it reformed. A small speck of a thought bloomed in Kelra's heart. Mayla had a champion—her brother. Mayla didn't need anyone else in her life to complicate it. Still, Kelra wished with her whole heart that she could do more for the puppet who served her. Maybe she would, if she survived this operation.
Finding the Majesty of the Stars had always been a long shot, no matter how carefully she planned. Her plans had never included what she would do with herself if she killed the alien who murdered her parents and lived.
Yet the more time she spent with Hart, thoughts of joining him on his pirating adventures intruded, which might not be such a bad idea. He cared about her. Every time he looked at her, she could see he took their cross-holo attraction seriously. Maybe they both wanted more out of this…what? Partnership? Relationship? It wasn’t just one great night of sex that made her wonder, but the years of foreplay leading up to it.
Adventures in pirating had a romantic sound, but the problem remained that neither she nor Hart would give up their role as captain, and a ship couldn't have two captains on board. Even her own father's rank on board the Majesty of the Stars didn't equal her mother's, which was why neither of them worked the same shifts. One of them was always available to take care of her.
Your father didn't mind.
I don't know that. Parents fake happiness for the sake of their children all the time. Maybe he didn't like it. How would I know? And why am I thinking of children?
Children with Hart…
A lump of dorsala jammed in her throat as it constricted around the thought. It took half the glass of billibloom to push it through to her stomach.
It'll never work.
Your parents made it work. His parents made it work. Now you're making excuses.
I am NOT.
Coward.
Nope. She was no coward, but pirating didn't soothe her soul, even with Hart in the picture. Serving Manitac had made her sick some days: corporate policies such as turning people into puppets, financially crushing smaller businesses, throttling research into better shielding. Yet pirates were still pirates, and Hart was no different except that in deference to his friend, he didn't engage in wholesale slaughter just for laughs. It didn't change the fact that people died on his orders, but then people had died by her orders as well, when necessary, and not as many as under other Manitac captains.
Like the ones responsible for Stratos…
All this thinking gave her a headache. Time to throttle back and refocus on the mission at hand.
"Queen of Hearts, show me all records about Vaynix hub."
By the time she scrolled past the general overview of the hub, along with the accompanying commercials advertising it as the gateway to various regions, including the Callista arm, she realized what Hart had done: each record had extensive notes attached. He'd studied the hub and calculated all possible escape routes, both with and without the Queen's shift.
The comments spared no detail, so she had to assume that he wanted her to see how much effort he put into an operation. It was unnecessary since he already had her admiration each time they engaged in battle. Was he showing off? Yeah, that has to be it. The scenarios he documented took into account at least a dozen variations for each one, and each variation included one statistic: possible casualties for both sides. This sort of access drove home how serious he was in his commitment to not killing unnecessarily. He wanted her to have this information, or he never would have let her near it.
Whether he calculated the number of lives lost because he cared about his crew or because Cuff demanded it of him, it didn't matter. Every record had a rank and percentage attached to it based on the likelihood he would use that particular scenario.
Not unlike her own logs. The logs Silt now used against them.
None of this new information helped her with her current research, however. It took another few minutes of searching before she found what she needed: the hub's directory.
Before she put her treasonous act into motion, she'd acquired a number of false identities for the purposes of stashing money in various bank accounts she could retrieve credits from, along with personal items. In theory, those banks would have a presence on every ring of the seven stations that created the hub. So long as she remembered the account numbers, identification codes, and provided bio matter to match the imprint on each record, she'd have access to her own money.
Now, for the harder part. If she knew Hart, and she did, he would try to dock the Queen of Hearts at Station Six, closest to the slipstream. She needed to get from that station to Station Seven, which had been added to the hub to handle overflow when the others hit their capacity limit. Construction continued at a leisurely pace and security was lighter than the other
stations, so it allowed for…less-than-legal activities to proliferate. Once in a while, some administrator would try to crack down on the smuggling activity, but there were other transactions of the non-smuggling type that dealers managed to keep out of sight.
She had to get to that station without raising Hart's suspicions, or anyone else's. Which meant she needed to give Hart a reason for her to leave the Queen of Hearts and separate herself from the rest of the crew.
They would be suspicious, especially if something went wrong with their departure. What excuse could she use to alleviate those suspicions?
Images flashed through her mind. Six months on Ruintalos hadn't given her a lot of time to think about the details of what would happen after Hart rescued her, but in those rare moments in the wee early morning hours when her corner of the world was at its coldest and darkest, while still half awake, she would dream about what extraordinary circumstances she would have to outwit and outrun to get to where she was now. That was when she was not dreaming of Hart. Dreaming of Hart kept her warmer than her thoughts of vengeance. If she had to pick between the two…
No. She started this journey, and she would finish it. She had to for her parents. There was no room for error, and Hart was nothing more than a means to end. He had to be. Otherwise…
You would break your own heart.
Chapter Seventeen
Entering the maw of a slipstream didn't quite hold the excitement of the first time he'd ordered the Queen of Hearts through one, but the sight of the mouth opening wide, inviting his ship into its depths would always play havoc with his sense of safety. It was an unavoidable sensation due to his extensive knowledge of how slipstreams worked and everything that could go wrong. Knowing Manitac's penchant for cost cutting didn't help.
Though she'd left the bridge over an hour ago, Darvik could still feel the pressure of Shade's thumb running along his fingers. The promise of more of the same later didn't help his concentration as the Queen of Hearts accelerated at a speed that would have taken her four months using gravity acceleration.