by Enid Titan
“She’s beautiful, and her skin is such a vibrant shade of red…”
“Save it for an ill-fated love poem,” Garth snaps, “I want you two out of here and back on duty. We can’t afford anymore problems. One more incident like this and I’ll cut your expected earnings by 50%. Don’t think I won’t do it. Get out. All of you.”
I turn to follow them out, feeling very much like Garth yelled at me too. But he growls, “Not you, Gavriel. I want you here.”
Great. What the hell am I in trouble for now? Thankfully, I’m not in trouble. Which is a miracle, judging by Garth’s foul mood. He rubs his forehead and slams his fist on the table.
“Poke ought to know better than this.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“But it’s my fault. Everyone’s on edge. We have no bloody idea where we’re going and… hold on… where’s Jaen?”
“She’s on duty with Licker in the kitchen.”
“Good. Good. I have Jisoo working on cracking the logs, but I want to make sure Jaen doesn’t get herself in any more trouble.”
“Captain, may I speak freely?”
“Aye. You’ll speak freely, anyway.”
“I don’t believe Jaen’s responsible for this.”
“We have evidence. Who else could have used her voice access?”
“I don’t know. But… I confronted her.”
Garth snorts.
“That girl’s been through hell. Confrontation won’t work unless you stick a knife against her belly.”
I glance down at my feet. Pulling knives on your shipmates isn’t exactly exalted since we’re all relying on each other to survive to the salvage site.
“You didn’t,” Garth mutters.
“I did what I thought I had to. And I had to extract information from her. She told me about Cylon-7.”
“Stupid girl. She’ll only put herself at risk if she runs around giving such personal information. Do you know what the Confederacy will do if they find out there’s a Cylon-7 survivor out there?”
“Exactly why she couldn’t have done this.”
“Why… why… why… Isn’t that the question we need the answer to? What if there’s no logical reason? What if the saboteur wants to sabotage themselves as much as everyone else? Maybe Jaen never forgave me… Maybe she wants me dead.”
“She’s not like that, Garth.”
“What do you know what she’s like?” he sneers.
And then his eyes meet mine, and he knows. Shit. I ought to hide my emotions better. I’m Odilian. I can if I want to. But in a moment of weakness, he glimpses feeling on my face that’s too obvious for him to ignore.
“Fuck’s sake. Not you too.”
“I care for her like a sister,” I lie.
Garth snickers.
“Sure. Keep telling yourself that. It’s bad enough I have to keep Xanth and Kazim away from her but I expected better of you, Gavriel.”
“I assure you, I have no ill intentions towards her.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. That girl has been through enough. She doesn’t need another man like us.”
“Man like us?”
“A pirate. We’re bastards. Dangerous, greedy bastards. And Jaen grew up free. She’s smart. She’s been in tough situations. But she’s not a pirate.”
“Isn’t that exactly why she couldn’t have done this?”
Garth rubs his tusk.
“Then who did?”
Jisoo enters Garth’s office.
“Captain,” she says, “I’ve accessed the missing logs. Whoever hid them wasn’t as clever as they thought.”
“We have the salvage coordinates and everything?”
“Aye,” Jisoo answers, “But Captain… I suspect there are only two people who could have done this.”
I glance at Garth. If Jisoo’s been poking around the computer for file extraction, she may have come to the same conclusion that we had. And there’s nothing to stop her from gossiping about Jaen Nabokov and spreading word around the ship she’s the saboteur.
“What did you find?” Garth asks.
“I have two suspects. The new girl’s one of them. Everyone knows she’s an absolute freak. But then… there’s Connie. And if we think about it, Connie has a motive. There are six or seven Baharozian pirate ships out there. Perhaps she’s mended things with her brothers. And she’s doing this to get back in their good graces. Connie might be our saboteur.”
Chapter 29
Saroyan
“Gavriel, join me in the engine room. We’ll question Connie and put this to rest. She has no reason to lie.”
We didn’t take a single step before a loud explosion rattled the ship. Our ship’s gravity field faced a momentary disruption. Garth and I fell and then floated for a second before landing on the ground with a thud. Another rumble. Another hit. Shit.
We’re under attack.
“Jisoo! What’s going on.”
“Captain! They came out of nowhere. You’d better get to helm. I think we’re being boarded.”
“Gavriel! Head to the engine room. Secure a defense team around the perimeter. Jisoo, send details about the ship to helm — NOW!”
How the bloody hell did we stand in the dome and miss an enemy ship? Jisoo was staring right at the sensors. Judging by the weapons impact, at least it wasn’t a confederate ship. Gavriel’s voice came over my intercom.
“Gavriel. It’s Saroyan Baharozian’s ship. There are fifteen men kidnapping crewmen in the lower decks. Is the engine room secure?”
“Aye, Captain.”
My defense team surrounds the engine room in our beta pattern. Connie gets my attention over the intercom after Garth.
“This is my brother, isn’t it?”
“Aye.”
“Listen, I know what he’s trying to do. He’ll kidnap as much of the crew as he can. How did you miss his ship?”
“I’m trying to figure out the same thing. How would he have had our coordinates?”
“I don’t know, but you need to tell Garth to leave me without security. Defend the junior crew. That’s what they’re after.”
“How can you know that?”
“Damn it, Gavriel. Tell him now! I’m elbows deep in engine trouble. That last hit —
Our connection fizzes and stops dead. I can’t contact Garth. Two Baharozian crewmen come running towards us. I shoot one. A member of the junior crew shoots the other. The new weapons Horus and Nova put together for us are effective at disabling our enemies. I’ll remember to thank Nova later.
After a few minutes standing guard, Connie’s voice returns.
“I repaired communications. Casualties?”
“No. None here. Have you heard from the captain?”
“I’ll patch him in.”
Garth’s voice sizzles to life.
“Gavriel. We’re detecting two intruders on your deck. Dead or alive?”
“Dead.”
“There are six in the crew quarters. Connie’s right. Leave two of the junior crew to guard the engine room. They’re teleporting junior crewmen as captives. Judging by our sensor readings, they likely encountered confederates and lost a significant portion of their working crew. Head down there now.”
Crew quarters. I hurry through the manifest and duty roster in my head. Jaen’s not on duty now. Her shift would have ended shortly before the attack. I shoot two intruders on the way down.
I run straight for Jaen’s quarters — a liberal interpretation of Garth’s command.
“Jaen!” I call.
She runs out of her quarters and relief washes over me too soon. Saroyan follows, his gun pointed straight at her head. What? I try to reach Garth on intercom but he points a small sensor at me that emits clicks that stop my communications. Saroyan Baharozian can’t be here. This mission can’t be that important to him for him to arrive himself.
He looks like Connie — tall, thin, pale — and he has a thick crop of shoulder length black hair and violet eyes.
“Hello, Gavriel,” he says.
We met once. I broke his nose and nearly impaled him on my horns.
“Saroyan. Let her go.”
“I don’t think so.”
“What are you doing here? This is beneath you.”
“How’s my sister?”
I can hear crewmen screaming in the background.
“Ask her yourself after you let her go.”
Saroyan grins, his sharp canines filed into points — a cosmetic augmentation popular amongst his crew.
“That won’t happen. I want you to send a message to Garth Moray.”
“We have a peace truce,” I snarl, “Call off your men and I’m sure Garth would be happy to exchange crew.”
Saroyan chuckles but ignores me. If I so much as move, he’ll shoot Jaen. I’ve watched him kill his crew over less. She stares at me and mouths, “don’t.” She’s crazy. She can’t go with him. I can’t let him take her.
“Send my apologies to Garth Moray. But our situation has changed. Confederate presence grows stronger in our sector of space. Haig lost four ships this week alone. Over 500 dead. Garth ought to know there’s no honor amongst thieves.”
“We can’t survive if we all turn on each other.”
“You’re right. We can’t all survive. But I can. Give my regards to Connie.”
I shoot. But it’s too late. He’s engaged his teleport, and he’s gone — with Jaen in tow.
“JAEN!”
I lunge forward and try to grab her, but she disintegrates in my grasp and the unaccounted for creature in her pocket falls to the ground. Bonbon. The hedgehog squeaks and runs over my shoe. I stoop and allow Bonbon to climb up my arm onto my shoulders before I move the little creature to my pocket.
I race through the crew quarters, shooting as many of Saroyan’s men that I can. I kill two. Injure one. But that doesn’t stop them from disappearing at their Captain’s command taking several of our junior crew.
Garth finally gets a signal through.
“What the bloody hell is going on down there Gavriel!?”
Chapter 30
Let Her Die
“We have serious problems, Captain,” I gasp into the intercom, catching my breath and struggling down the hallway.
“We’re registering eight missing crewmen.”
“They took Jaen.”
“Get up here, Gav. Now!”
The senior crew sits around the table, except Kazim, who stands leaning over Nova’s chair and Poke, who sits on the table.
“We can’t afford to get them back,” Jisoo insists, “Saroyan kidnapped them. That’s it. At least we were lucky enough that they took our saboteur.”
“Jaen was not the saboteur,” Kazim says calmly.
I hardly expected him to defend her publicly.
“Oh? So you have definitive proof of who was?”
“No. But I refuse to believe she had enough motivation to do this. Someone fed our coordinates to Saroyan.”
“She arranged her pickup,” Jisoo postulated, “And now she’s gone. End of story.”
Connie bit her lip until it turned red and quietly shook her head. Garth gestured toward her.
“Connie. Do you have any insight into your brother’s actions?”
“Saroyan’s more unpredictable than Haig. But if they lost four ships like Gavriel claims, they’d be desperate enough to break our truce.”
“I’m sorry,” Nova blurted, “But I agree with Jisoo. It’s too risky.”
“Captain,” Poke interrupted, pointing to the screen behind him, “Green light. We have a message.”
“From?”
“The Baharozian ship.”
“Play it.”
Poke played the message. Saroyan’s deep silky voice filled the room. He could have had a career as a jazz singer if he wasn’t a pirate.
“Moray. Long time. I want you to know that I have killed all the hostages except for one. Bring her out.”
Two men led Jaen out, prodding her into the frame with the butt of their weapons. Bonbon adjusted his sleeping position in my pocket and my throat tightened. I couldn’t bear to look at her. I’d watched Saroyan take her, and I hadn’t done enough to stop him. Why the hell had I listened to her? It would have been a risk to save her from him. I didn’t want him to kill her. He had his gun pointed right at her head. Hopefully, she’d forgive me.
“If you want your crewman back, send over 5 million credits on a chip, 13 kilos of medical supplies and 15 kilos of plutonium plasma in secured biohazard containers. We encoded the rendezvous coordinates in this message using standard pirate encryption to avoid confederate detection. If you approach with shields or weapons armed, we’ll kill the girl and destroy you. Gavriel. It was good to see you again. And Connie… Dear sister. Come back to my ship and work the brothels. The men need a morale boost.”
“Shut it off,” Connie snaps.
Garth grins.
“Your brother is as charming as I remember.”
“He’s a bastard.”
“We’re obviously not doing any of that,” Poke snarls.
“We can’t. We don’t have 15 kilos of plutonium to spare and I can’t risk Saroyan launching another attack.”
“We could ambush him at the rendezvous coordinates and strip his ship for parts,” Kazim suggests.
“Too reckless.”
I break my too long silence.
“Captain, we can’t allow him to torture Jaen.”
“He won’t torture her,” Connie says, and I think for a moment she’s going to reassure me until she continues, “She’s breeding age and quite beautiful. He’ll have her servicing the men in the brothels.”
Garth snarls.
“I’ll never understand the disturbing practice of some pirates. Women are not objects to be bought or sold on our ships. What then makes us better than slavers? On the planets, women may choose how they live and how they survive, but on our ships, women are our equals in all things. Women are not for sale.”
“Aye, Captain,” Connie murmurs gratefully. Her brothers are not men who would shy away from selling their own sister to ruthless bands of pirates. Baharozian ships have gained notoriety for both their violence and bacchanalia, hence Garth’s truce to steer clear.
Garth continues, “Still, I cannot allow us to risk the lives of hundreds for one member of our crew.”
“Captain, it’s Jaen.”
“So?” Jisoo snaps, “What on Earth does that mean to us? Captain, she was our prime suspect for a saboteur and now she’s gone. We ought to keep going until we get to the salvage site. At least now we can go unencumbered.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Kazim points out, “Why sabotage our ship if she intended to leave for Saroyan’s ship? Saroyan doesn’t know where we’re headed.”
Jisoo shrugs. Nova flicks Kazim’s hand away as his fingers crawl along the back of her chair on a journey toward her bare shoulder. Poke and Horus exchange awkward glances across the table. Garth strokes his exposed tooth. None of us know what to do or say now.
“That’s final then,” I snarl, “You’re sentencing her to death.”
“This isn’t my wish, Gavriel,” Garth snaps back.
“Fine. If you wish to save her… send me alone.”
“I refuse to cave to that animal’s demands.”
I grin.
“Who said anything about caving to his demands? I’ll take a small pod and two crewmen if you’ll allow it. We’ll run a guerilla attack, get Jaen and get back here.”
“There aren’t any members of the junior crew trained for that kind of mission, and I won’t force the senior crew to participate.”
“I’ll go,” Kazim says.
Garth raises an eyebrow.
“I’ll need time to think about it.”
Nova glances over her shoulder at Kazim in disbelief. She’s siding with Jisoo when it comes to rescuing Jaen at all, but I doubt she’ll let Kazim go on a mission like this alone.
; “I understand, Captain.”
“Until then, I need you all to assess the damage and send messages to the crew member’s families. Get Xanth to write up death certificates. Gavriel, everyone needs double shifts until the ship’s repaired. I’ll see you when I’ve made a final decision.”
“Aye, Captain.”
I don’t have much hope. Garth isn’t the type to take risks like this. And if it were anyone else but Jaen, I’d agree with him. Once I have my work done, I climb into bed, muscles aching from a hard day’s work. Bonbon climbs over my chest and sleeps between my chin and my neck, blue fur keeping me warm. I stroke his back until he makes a low purring noise.
I must have drifted off to sleep because I wake up to Bonbon burrowing behind my neck as my doors slide open. Garth stands in the doorway.
“I’ve made a decision. I’m sorry, Gavriel…”
Chapter 31
If I Sleep With Her
“It wasn’t right for me to hesitate,” Garth continues, “Jaen means a lot to me but I have other responsibilities.”
I sit up and Bonbon hides beneath my pillow.
“Aye.”
“I’m sending you, Kazim, and Nova on this mission. You’ll take a pod. The rendezvous co-ordinates are the best clue we have about Saroyan’s whereabouts. Connie’s outfitting the pod with special upgrades so you can avoid detection. But pods can’t withstand major attacks. You understand?”
“It’s a suicide mission. I know.”
“You care for Jaen,” he says, “I get it now.”
I meet his gaze, my jaw clenched tight. I don’t want to admit it to Garth. He’s my friend, but he’s also my Captain and her ex-boyfriend. I nod as curly white hair falls out of the knot at the nape of my neck.
“Find her. Bring her back.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“I don’t believe now she was the saboteur. Whoever arranged this made a hearty miscalculation.”
“What was that?”
“Jaen wouldn’t work with Saroyan. She did everything to avoid sex slavery. Everything.”
He’s right. But I couldn’t bring myself to suspect her. I assumed it was only because of how compromised my feelings for her were.