Freed by the Wolf

by Elin Wyn

  The captain gave up the idea of his easy prize, running back towards the gangway without firing a single shot.

  Aedan gave chase, finally leaping to the top of a crate for a bit of altitude. He knocked the slaver to the ground, then slammed his head into the deck twice to make sure he stayed down.

  The semi-wary one had looked like a decent fight. I squared off against him, pleased to see he had reasonable footwork, like he might know what he was doing.

  Lorcan streaked past me, tackling him and binding his arms to his ankles before the poor sap knew what had hit him.

  In far less time than Nadira had spent honeying the trap, the Pack dispatched their boarding party.

  “Help! We’ve been attacked! Help me!” The captain shouted, but Aedan just shook his head.

  “His comm’s gone. Took it from him soon as he went down. He might have a backup on him but I think he’s just too scared to know when he’s beaten.”

  I looked down the gangway and saw their airlock still open, the bar clamp Hakon had slapped together keeping the hatch open. Geir was nowhere in sight, so he’d moved on to the second part of his assignment.

  “Xander, Aeden. Make sure these idiots don’t go anywhere.” Norman’s lip curled, but he flinched away at Xander’s lunge. “Try to keep at least some of them alive.”

  “I’ll try.” Xander didn’t sound happy about it, but he’d follow orders.

  “Lorcan, you’re with me and Hakon. Let's go get a ship.”

  Geir’s voice came through the comm. “I have them cornered, sir. However, we may have a problem.”

  I ripped off the last of the fabric, tossed it to Aeden and Xander to use as ties for our new guests.

  "No more problems. I'm done with problems for the day. Maybe even for the week.”

  Silence.

  I sighed. “You win. I’ll be right there.”

  Geir stood guard outside the bridge doors.

  “They locked themselves in.”

  I slammed my hand into the side of the corridor.

  “I’m going to go secure the engines now,” Hakon said.

  “Good,” I snapped. “Lorcan, check the rest of the ship. See if there are any prisoners, get them out.”

  He faded away, just as happy to have a task elsewhere.

  “Alright, how do you suggest we get in there?”

  Geir tapped a dark gray plate set into the wall. Optical sensor. Probably each member of the crew had something that would open it.

  “We do have the captain, currently alive. Unless he’s annoyed Xander.”

  Who knew? Mercy might actually have been the right choice. Now all we had to do was secure his cooperation.

  We could beat it out of him, but I was tired. There had to be an easier way.

  I took a deep breath before triggering my commlink. “Nadira.”

  “Are you hurt? Is everyone alright? Should I come down?

  “It depends. Can you make a truth serum?”

  Nadira

  I couldn’t make a truth serum. As far as I knew, no one could. But we had enough drugs to lower someone’s inhibitions by quite a bit.

  That, plus Ronan’s scheme for the interrogation, would have to do.

  I glared at the oily wreck of a man sprawled on the table. The rest of the captured crew had been bound, sedated, and locked into a small compartment.

  “Captain Norman?”

  “Hey, I know that voice. You’re a looker, little lady. You’re going to make me some good money.”

  It was harder than I expected, keeping the revulsion from my voice. “That’s nice, Captain Norman. Can you do me another favor?”

  “What’s that?

  “Your crew asked me to take a message to the bridge, but I can’t get in.”

  “‘Course not.” He puffed out his chest and patted his jangling vest. “Need the key.”

  “Oh, that makes sense. I’ll bet your key is best of all. Can I use it?”

  He patted his lap. “Why don’t you come over here, see what else I have?”

  I took a quick step in front of Ronan.

  “It’s not worth it,” he snapped. “I’ll bet it’s just thumbprints. That’s easy. I can take them both with me to check. He doesn’t need thumbs where he’s going.”

  “One day without patching you up. That’s worth a lot to me.”

  I watched the captain fidget with the trinkets sewn to his vest.

  “Do they all have those?”

  “What? All that junk? Yeah. Rattle like a music box, the lot of them.”

  “It’s something on the vests.”

  Ronan stared at the man, who’d apparently decided to go on a vacation in his own head. It’d make it easy to get him when we needed him.

  “We could be here all night, trying different tokens on that panel.”

  “Or, we could just let him go.”

  “What?”

  “Have him take me to the bridge.”

  Ronan had his stubborn face on. “You’re not going on their ship.”

  “Isn’t that what we’re leaving on?”

  “Not until we have control of it. Not one step.”

  He was still angry when I followed behind our good friend Captain Norman down the gangway.

  Ronan, Geir, and Lorcan stalked behind us, ready to drop the captain as soon as it looked like he was emerging from the fog.

  But he didn’t give any indications, just stumbled along, my hand tucked into the crook of his elbow keeping him upright.

  We passed through the gangway, onto the strange ship. After the wide corridors of the Star, it felt cramped, dingy, the air stale.

  “Thank you for taking me on a tour of your ship,” I forced a giggle into my voice. “I’m so excited to see the bridge.”

  We got to the sealed door, with the optical pad beside it.

  “I’m sorry, little lady. You need to turn away. This part is a secret.”

  With my back to him, I watched Ronan step away from where he’d been pressed into the wall.

  I crept behind him, let Geir pass me, and stood next to Lorcan.

  Still, I was close enough to see the idiot’s face when the door slid open and he turned, slurring “Welcome aboard, schweetheart!”

  The shock on his face at Ronan’s glower was worth having put up with his presence.

  Once the entire crew was in lockdown, we proceeded to inspect the ship, stem to stern. No ‘passengers’ had been found, thankfully.

  “If this is a known slaver, we’re going to have a problem docking anywhere.” Hakon had given the engines a reluctant seal of approval. “They work,” was apparently as high as he was prepared to go.

  Aeden shrugged. “We’ll explain we found it as salvage. No one is going to wonder too much what happened to the original crew.”

  “What are we going to do with the crew?” I asked.

  “Space ’em.” I’d have expected it from Geir, but Xander’s terse words surprised me.

  “We’ll do worse.” Ronan dropped his hands to my shoulders, taking up his position in our old conference room. We might have a ship now, but none of us seemed to be particularly comfortable on it. “We’ll throw enough mealpacks and water in the compartment to keep them alive, then send a tip to Imperial Authority when we’re well clear from here.”

  “Are we sure we want the Imperials nosing around here?” Lorcan looked up from sharpening one of his knives. “What about…”

  “We’ll take them with us, of course.” Ronan’s hands tightened slightly on my shoulders. “We can’t let anyone find the bodies.”

  Of course. Erich and the other slain Wolves would be far too interesting to let the Imperial Authority find. They weren’t known for great leaps of inspiration, but even they might decide that where there were some illegally modified soldiers, there might be more.

  “There won’t be room for all of the victims.” Ronan looked down at me, clearly worried about my reaction to leaving the fully human bodies behind.

  “I
know.” I reached up, twined my fingers with his. “I still don’t think we’re all just meat, but those people aren’t there anymore. I wish we knew their names, were able to tell their families what happened to them, but I know that’s not possible.”

  Quinn looked up from his tablet. “I can check the lab records.”

  “I don’t think it’s worth the time. I watched them pull us out of the cage one by one. They never asked for anyone’s name, never spoke. Just started their experiments.”

  Nausea gripped my gut. “If I had a wish, I’d say burn it all. Shove the ship into the nearest sun, and erase all of it from the universe, not leave anything for the compound to find.”

  “We could do that,” Hakon answered. His lips compressed, as if working equations in his head.

  “I thought we didn’t have navigational control?”

  “We don’t. Certainly not for the jump drive, and we don’t want to be on board long enough to get anywhere we’d want to be on standard propulsion.” He stopped figuring, looked around the room. “Steering the ship into a nearby sun is less navigation than math and physics. Find a sun, determine flight path, adjust the output of the thrusters. Don’t have to get into navigational controls at all.”

  Silence wrapped the room.

  Ronan spoke first. “How long would it take?”

  “Need to do some calculations.”

  “Get started while we make the new ship habitable. Let’s see what the options are.”

  “Speaking of the new ship. Are we going to leave the crew on the Star to burn?” I’d never thought of myself as particularly bloodthirsty, but finding that slavers still roamed the spaceways seemed to have changed that.

  “When we leave, they can ride in one of their own holding pens.” Lorcan’s lip curled. “I’ll make sure to keep one as filthy as they left it.”

  The crew of the new ship had been pigs.

  Not just that Norman and his men had been slavers; that would certainly qualify them.

  But the entire ship was filthy, from the bridge down to the holding cells that none of the men wanted me to see.

  Honestly, I was alright with that. Enough things had happened in the last two weeks that a little bit of shielding my reality came as a welcome break.

  Hakon’s calculations had shown that with a few more days of modifications of the Star's thrusters, he could lock it down to its path to the sun. Even after we left in the ship that we had newly re-named the Legacy, the Star would incinerate in the closest sun in about nine weeks.

  I certainly wasn't going to stay around for it, none of us wanted to. Hakon was certain. It would all be gone.

  I thought of the bodies, the lab. Maybe something had changed within me, but fire seemed the only appropriate response.

  Xander and Hakon had gone to plan for the careful transfer of Loree’s stasis chamber.

  The gangway was just large enough, but the airlocks were going to be a problem. One we’d have to solve, because none of us would consider leaving her behind.

  We’d been trapped long enough; to stay by our own choice while sorting out what felt like minor housekeeping duties and details was almost pleasant.

  I had just finished my sixth load of the day, moving supplies from the Star to the Legacy, when the comm in my ear crackled.

  “General warning, everyone brace for possible impact.” Quinn never sounded rattled, but I certainly was.

  “What is it, meteors?” Ronan snapped. He and Aeden had resumed our plundering of the cargo bay. Now that we weren't just looking for items of survival, anything we could trade, sell, or use on a station or planet had new value.

  “No, sir. Shots fired across the Star’s bow.”

  “From who?” Ronan bellowed.

  “No idea yet, they're coming around for another pass.”

  I cut in. “Are we sure they’re enemies?”

  “They are firing on us.”

  “I know, but they don't know it's us, what if they think it's the Hunters? What if they’re actually firing on the slavers, because, whether or not we've renamed it, if they know what it looks like…” I trailed off.

  “The enemy of my enemy isn't necessarily my friend,” Ronan said. “Chances are good it's just another enemy.”

  “What does it hurt to hail them and find out?”

  “The Star doesn't have much in the way of weapons, and tethered like the Legacy is, we’re pinned down,” Aeden chimed in. “We may not have a lot of options here.”

  “Fine. Hail them, stall them, I'll be on the bridge of the Legacy and let's see who we’re dealing with.” Ronan didn’t sound happy.

  I shoved the box I'd been carrying on to the nearest bunk and hurried up to the bridge to meet him.

  He growled a little when he saw me.

  “Stop that.”

  I wrapped my arms around him. “I want to see who we’re facing, too.”

  “But I don't want them seeing you.” His eyes scanned the bridge, the panels, and control chairs arranged in an arc around the compartment.

  “There,” he pointed. “You should be able to see the screen fine, but out of their line of sight.”

  I poked him. It couldn't hurt him. I wasn't entirely certain I could, but there were certainly times that something was called for, and he didn't listen to words when it came to what he thought was protecting my safety.

  “Fine.” I went to my assigned position as the screens flickered to life.

  A man's face crowned with spiky dark blond hair filled the screen, eyes hard and jaw set. I didn’t need to see his ears to start speculating.

  “This is the Seeker. I don’t know who you are, but if you're allied with Base then I'd suggest--”

  He broke off, brow furrowed. “Sir?”

  “Connor, what the hell are you doing?” Ronan snapped. “Get your ass over here.”

  Ronan

  "No more arguing." I spoke the words to Nadira’s rigid back. "You don't know what was done to me, to the others. Until we know it really is Connor, and he really is himself, you have to stay away, stay safe."

  She faced me, but only to glare. Time to play dirty.

  "If I'm worried about you, I could miss something important." I lowered my voice, stroked the side of her face. “Someone could get hurt."

  One slim finger thrust into my chest. "When we get off this nightmare, you and I are having a long talk about this nonsense."

  She stomped off, Lorcan trailing behind her. They'd stay on the bridge of the Legacy until the rest of the Pack and I were sure about Connor's sudden reappearance.

  Nadira could stay angry with me, I could live with that. But there was a risk we’d be so desperate to welcome another lost brother that it could turn into a trap.

  I couldn't allow that to happen.

  The small shuttle landed into the secondary docking bay. As the doors sealed, and its atmosphere re-flooded the bay, the Pack silently surrounded the shuttle.

  It took longer than it should have for a small ramp to descend from the side of the shuttle, for the hatch to open.

  None of us needed to wait for full atmosphere. So why was Connor being so careful?

  Warily, he stepped off the ship, looked at all of us ranged against him.

  "Is there a problem I don't know about?" he asked

  "We don't know. A lot's happened in the last while."

  Xander stepped forward. He and Connor had always been close. "Where were you when the attack came?"

  Connor frowned. "In medbay, stuck in one of the healing chambers." He tilted his head to the side, studying us all. "Man, you should know that. You put me there."

  Xander nodded. "So I did. Just wanted to see if you knew." He stepped back, and everyone waited, eyes on me.

  It looked like Connor, smelled like him, had his memories. And I'd be damned if I was going to suspect every single one of my brothers of having been corrupted by the Hunters’ poisons. They'd already done enough to us.

  I stuck my hand out. “Welcome aboard
."

  Conner looked around. “Is this all that’s left of us?”

  His words stabbed at my chest. But he deserved to know the truth. "It's a long story, but, yes, we're it."

  He started down the ramp, then froze, eyes going distant. I tensed, suddenly on alert.

  A woman, long curly dark hair spilling down her back, stepped out of the hatch. He whirled to face her, anger on his face, but he was strangely silent.

  She patted his arm, then pushed past.

  "Hi. He thought I should stay in the ship. If you guys are at all like him, I'm pretty sure you think he's right. Seriously, you all need to relax a little.”

  I studied her, then Connor, and then tapped the comm in my ear. "Lorcan, Nadira, come back over and greet our guests."

  We gathered in the conference room for what looked to be one last time. Nadira and the woman Connor had introduced as Eris were seated, the rest of us standing around the perimeter. Connor stood right next to his mate, one hand protectively on her shoulder.

  "Before we get started, I know we've got a lot to tell and it looks like you do, too," Eris said. "There's a third member of our crew, and she'd really like to meet everyone."

  Connor stared down flatly at her.

  She shook her head. "We agreed to use voices. It’s only polite. Besides, you know she'll just find a way to listen in.”

  Lovely. More surprises.

  "Does she need an escort from the shuttle or is she back on your ship?”

  “She is, but she's also here." Eris brought a silver cube from her pocket and set it on the arm of her chair. Blue lights twinkled.

  "Hi! I'm Nixie! Do you mind if I run through your ship's databases?"

  “Nixie, we talked about this. That’s not polite either."

  Eris looked up apologetically. "She kind of has a problem, thinking that anybody's information should be her information.”

  Connor spoke up. "Best AI I’ve ever seen, even if it is a pain in the ass."