Traitor (Collaborator Book 1)

by Krista D. Ball

  “Tobi?” Rebecca asked in a small voice. Everyone turned to look at her. “Are you okay?”

  “Stim withdrawal,” Tobi said. Her voice was firm, but not cruel. “It happens.”

  “We’ll fix it once we’re on the ship,” one of the female prisoners said. She was short, with pale skin and huge breasts that were stretching the black jacket she was wearing.

  Ship? There was a ship? Kat hadn’t mentioned anything about a ship, though Rebecca supposed it wouldn’t be good planning to break someone out of prison only to then stay in the area of said prison. She chided herself for not even thinking ahead enough to leaving this place.

  They headed towards the entrance. Rebecca wrapped an arm around Tobi’s waist, letting her lift her bad leg and still keep moving. Tobi cautioned her to stay clear of her firing arm, and Rebecca nodded, keeping her head low. She couldn’t shoot—didn’t want to shoot—but she could help keep the woman upright. That made her feel helpful, at least.

  Weapons fire broke out ahead.

  Chapter 21

  Rebecca was grateful for her helmet and was more grateful still for the wall rubble that was protecting her body from the blasts that were shooting in their direction. She screamed once, when a pulse blast knocked down a crumbling light fixture. After that, fear immobilized her. Rebecca curled up with her hands over her neck, just as Kat shouted at her to do, and waited for the end.

  More acrid air seeped in through her helmet’s filters, tinged with the taste of burnt plastic. The filters were clogged with soot, and occasionally particles came through, tickling the back of her throat. She wanted to cough, but the fear took away the ability to move any muscle. She squeezed her eyes shut and took shallow breaths, her body’s attempt to play dead.

  Every single person who died today would be her fault. She’d helped with deactivating the security measures. She’d helped upload Kat’s virus. She’d just made the decision to hurt someone. She’d become a terrorist. The thing she’d always feared being accused of, and she’d just chosen to become one.

  She opened her eyes and saw Babiak’s dead eyes staring back at her. She yelped and scurried backward along the wall until she bumped into more rubble. He’d come for her, and he was dead now. How would she be able to stay here now? They would all know by now that Kat had someone helping her on the inside. They’d eventually discover him next to the explosion and would assume she’d been responsible. Then what? Would she end up in a secret prison to be raped and tortured?

  More weapons fired joined the fray and Rebecca crumpled in on herself. She had to be calm. She had to control the mounting fear. Kat told her to stay down, so she would stay down. That was helping, right? Just tucking her head and letting them do the hard work.

  Wasn’t that all she was good for? Putting her head down and never making the big decisions? Never taking a stand and risking her neck? Maybe the best thing she could do for Kat and herself would be to stand up and take a pulse blast in the chest. She wasn’t wearing armor. Maybe it would crush her lungs. Maybe she’d fall to the floor and smash her head open. Maybe she could just put everyone out of their misery and take one for the team.

  “Captain, is that you?” called out a voice.

  Rebecca recognized the voice. She lifted her head just beyond the rubble enough to see two figures coming through the smoke haze.

  The figure on the left said, “I’ve been covering your ass for days now, Captain. You ready to go or what?”

  “Chad?” Rebecca asked, dazed out of her fear.

  *****

  Katherine looked over at Rebecca and asked, “Do you know him?”

  “That’s Chad,” she said, still in confusion. “What are you doing here? You gotta get out of here.”

  This Chad fellow laughed and lowered his weapon. He tossed them a backpack. “Here’s some jumpsuits for our friends. Tobi, there’s chocolate in the front pouch for you.”

  “Marry me,” Tobi said, grabbing a square foil package out of the pocket. She tossed the bag to the others. “Is there enough time to dress?”

  “No,” Chad’s partner said. “We have to get moving. Zain is bringing an assault force through to the shipping bay. He’s figured out we’re going to make for a run for it.”

  “Nate?” Katherine asked. “Nate, is that you?”

  Nate pulled off his helmet and there before her was the young ensign she’d been using the entire time. He smiled at her, and then gave Rebecca a softer one. He put his helmet back on and motioned for them to move.

  Rowe handed Rebecca the backpack. “Be helpful and carry that for us.”

  Rebecca took the backpack dutifully. Katherine frowned at that, but didn’t comment. It bothered her that Rowe was being nice to her, trying to teach her how to be a member of the team. Rebecca wasn’t one of them. Rebecca was just…just…

  She was just.

  Katherine shook off her thoughts and they started down the blasted hole between the repair tunnels and the hanger.

  “Zain will be in the hangar at any moment,” Nate was saying. Gone was the wide-eyed young man. Damn, he’d been a good actor. “I couldn’t get all of the main cannons off-line. We need to stay on the station’s starboard side when we launch or they’ll blast us.”

  “We’re starboard now,” Rowe said.

  “Good,” Katherine said.

  They didn’t meet any resistance leading up to the blast tunnel. It was a fucking mess, and it was going to take too long to get through. Zain and his troops were going to arrive before they got through.

  Katherine turned to Rebecca. “Did you get the drones offline in the tunnels?”

  “I did them first, so as long as your virus works…” Rebecca’s voice trailed off. “I also deactivated as many manually as I could.”

  “Good work, Rebecca,” Katherine said. “Well, good-bye.”

  Rebecca’s chin quivered, but she said nothing. Oh, Katherine knew that look. She’d seen it before, but she was immune now. She told herself she was immune. The ghost of what was, however, was not and it caused a haunting of the hurt she’d once caused this woman who she loved in another lifetime.

  “Okay,” Rebecca whispered.

  Katherine closed her eyes and said, “We can’t take you with us.”

  “Okay,” Rebecca said, still in that same whisper.

  Silence stretched between them. They had to get going, so why weren’t they moving? They were about to be shot just standing around here in the open. So why was she standing here staring at a woman she once loved?

  “She can come with us,” Maverick said, stepping up next to Rebecca. “Come on, Earther. You’re not safe here.”

  “We don’t have time for this,” Patrice snapped. She motioned for Katherine to follow her into the tunnels. “Let them work it out. Rowe? Keep the rear covered until they’re done talking about their emotions. Katherine? Me and you up front. Everyone else behind us. Let’s move.”

  Katherine followed, though she glanced back at Rebecca’s exhausted face.

  *****

  “I don’t know what to do,” Rebecca whispered.

  “If you stay here, they will arrest you. They will hurt you,” Mav said. His voice was kinder than she would have expected from those cold eyes. “You’ll have a chance with us.”

  “I’m not cut out to be a rebel,” Rebecca said. A little laugh escaped her. “I can barely carry this backpack without shitting myself.”

  “Never forget that these people think we’re less than them. That includes you. You’ll never be one of them. You’ll always be one of us,” Mav said. “Pretend you’ve been kidnapped and forced to do all this. We’ll let you go at the first safe place we land and you can surrender to the military. Maybe they’ll believe you. Maybe they won’t. Right now, though, we have to get out of here and that we includes you.”

  “About fucking time,” Tobi muttered, but that was all she said. She tossed something down the corridor toward the stairwell. “One minute timer on that. Move.”


  Rebecca tried to move quickly through the destruction zone. All of the heavy breathing, both from stress and the clogged filters, left her lightheaded. She stumbled frequently and Mav grew impatient.

  “Do you need me to carry you?” he finally asked.

  “Twenty,” Tobi said. “Move.”

  “I’m going as fast as I can!”

  “Go faster,” Mav barked, pushing her in the middle of the back. “For the love of cock, keep moving!”

  She really needed to get her translator updated with slang and swearing, but she couldn’t help chuckling at the idea that her implant was translating everything into penis jokes. If she wasn’t so terrified about being killed, she might even laugh.

  “Now!” Tobi shouted and ducked.

  Mav grabbed Rebecca by the arm and hauled her to the floor. He covered her body with his own, even though he was only wearing a ripped shirt around his waist. The tunnel walls shook and small pieces of plastic and wiring came undone. Rebecca looked behind her and stared wide-eyed at the collapsed tunnel head.

  “We’re trapped?” Rebecca asked, in an unsteady voice.

  “Unable to be attacked from behind,” Tobi said. “Come on.”

  They caught up to the others in front of a hole in the wall. The wall was several meters thick and big enough to walk through while hunched.

  “The gas didn’t get them all,” Katherine explained. Then, looking at Rebecca, she said, “The plan was to gas the area so that we’d have less resistance in there. Looks like either the ratios were wrong, or these are new arrivals.”

  “What does that mean?” Rebecca said. Her heart has been pounding so hard that it ached as the fear escalated once more.

  “We’ll have to fight to the ship,” Katherine said. “Are you sure we can get out?”

  Nate nodded. “There’s no way they can crack it. Chad blew the manual system.”

  “Then how are we getting out?” Mav asked. Then, realization. “Seriously?”

  Rebecca looked between them. “What?”

  “The old-fashioned way,” Tobi said with a giant grin on her face. “I haven’t blasted my way off a station in years.”

  “Oh shit,” Rebecca said in a very frail voice.

  Weapons fire broke out from Katherine and Nate, and Chad shouted for them to take cover. Rebecca threw herself against one of the pillar supports, bent, but still upright. Canisters were thrown in each direction and smoke billowed around them. Smoke leaked inside her helmet. She gagged and choked, trying to withstand it as long as possible. However, she had to pull off the helmet once she stared suffocating.

  She continued to cough, all the while shots were exchanged between the two groups. She slid down the wall until her butt touched her calves; the smoke was a little thinner near the floor.

  “We’re pinned,” Katherine shouted. “Ideas?”

  “You’re surrounded, Captain Andrewson,” came a deep, resonate, oh-so-familiar voice. “Or is it Captain Katherine Frances?”

  “Oh fuck,” Rebecca said.

  Chapter 22

  “Define oh fuck,” Mav asked.

  “That’s Zain,” Rebecca said. “Kat, it’s…”

  “I know who it is,” Kat shot back. She raised her voice and shouted, “We have three of your techs in here. Let us go or we’ll shoot them.”

  The weapons fired ceased. “You have Rebecca, don’t you?”

  “I do, and I’ll stick a bullet between your little toy’s eyes if you don’t let us through,” Kat shouted.

  Rebecca looked up sharply at that. She glanced at Mav, who shook his helmeted head. She thought that would relax her, but it really didn’t. Her hands began to shake again.

  “If you want to steal a ship, you’re going to have to come through us,” Zain shouted. “And there’s a lot more of us than there are of you.”

  “So, you’ll let her die, will you? What do you think she’s told us? Or the security tech we’ve captured? Or the systems tech? They’re going to tell us everything. Think this through, Zain. You’ve lost this round. Let us go,” Kat said.

  “Let them go,” said another masculine voice. Rebecca recognized it as her chatty guard. She lifted her head just enough to see the flash of a moustache. Ah, Wilber. That made sense. He’d probably been reporting to Zain every single move she made.

  Tobi slammed a device against the entrance. It beeped twice and a semi-translucent shield formed in the giant hole in the wall. “That can withstand eight pulse cannon shots before it blows, so you people better have a fucking second plan.”

  Katherine let out a grunt. “I did, except you blew it up when we came into the tunnel.”

  “Cock,” Tobi said.

  Rebecca tentatively raised a hand. She felt instantly stupid for doing it, but she couldn’t help it. “Um, may I offer a suggestion?” Patrice made a “hurry up” motion. “Well, see, all of these panels here have the security deactivated. From the virus.”

  A blast hit the shield. Rebecca flinched.

  “Hurry up!” Mav shouted. “What about the security?”

  “The panel just up there has a terminal for the drones on the other side. They’re just deactivated, but if the computer isn’t damaged…”

  “Try it,” Katherine said.

  “I’ll help,” Chad said.

  So they got to work, the others moving around a bit to make room for her and Chad. She pulled off the backpack so that the others could dress in something less public than nudity. Rowe got a proper pain injection, and Kat and Nate did first aid on the others.

  The computer terminal was flaky, but working. Kat provided the log in and password, assuming the virus worked: password, password.

  Rebecca chuckled and tears welled up in her eyes.

  “You okay?” Chad whispered.

  Rebecca sniffled. “When Kat and I lived together, her password was always just the word password. I used to give her so much shit for that.”

  Chad chuckled. “How are you holding up?”

  Rebecca’s fingers flew across the screen, looking for the drone activation controls. “I’m scared shitless.”

  “That’s pretty scared,” Chad said. “Look, I’m sorry I never told you…”

  She stopped moving her fingers long enough to look at him and said, “About yourself or Zain?” She went back to work. “Found the controls. It’s going to take me a bit to activate around the virus.”

  “Let me try,” Chad said. At her annoyed looked, he added, “I kinda wrote the virus six months ago.”

  A bitter sound escaped her. “When you got assigned to the security drones in the personnel quarters.”

  “Yeah. Sorry. I know you really wanted to do it, but I needed access to figure out how to do it.”

  Rebecca let him work, gulping back her anger. Was anyone who they appeared to be? Hell, was she even who she appeared to be? Who was she now? Who was she a week ago, before this all started?

  Zain’s people fired at the shield for a full ten minutes. The air grew hot and thick and the smoke lingered and irritated all of their throats if she judged by the amount of coughing and throat clearing that was going on. No one really spoke, except whenever Chad needed help with the system.

  “Got it,” Chad said.

  A moment later, pulse fire hammered the ship hangar. Boom. Boom. Boom. Rebecca shoved her fingers into her ears, as the sound made her stomach heave. Mav passed her the discarded helmet and told her to put it on. She did, and although it stank inside of smoke and burning plastic, it did help protect her eardrums. Rowe’s shield collapsed and some weapons fire hit the entrance, but most was concentrated on the drones.

  Eventually the firing stopped, from both sides. Chad put the drones back to sleep and said, “Okay, come on.”

  Kat and Rowe stepped out in the main platform, crouching and ready to dive for cover. Nothing happened. They began running across the platform, Nate on their heels shouting at which ship they needed to get to.

  Rebecca tried not to look down at the unm
oving forms on the ground. Were they dead? Where was Zain? Were they just unconscious? She couldn’t imagine Kat as a murderer, but now? God, how much had the war changed her? Or, even worse, was Kat always capable of this? She was in the military and in some kind of nebulous way, Rebecca knew what that meant. But she never thought about it. She never considered Kat hurting others. Kat didn’t even kill spiders in the bathroom. She just put them on a piece of paper and put them outside on their little patio to hang out with the other bugs and their well-webbed tomato plants.

  That final illusion faded when Kat saw one of the soldiers move. Kat fired off several shots from her pistol, the one that used real bullets and not energy pulses.

  Her Kat was a murderer.

  “Zain?” Rebecca shouted. “Zain?”

  Rebecca’s feet slowed. She couldn’t go with these people. She’d get killed. They might kill her. She didn’t owe Kat anything anymore. Kat wasn’t the person Rebecca thought she was. If anything, Kat was…

  “For the love of my cock, woman!” Mav said, grabbing Rebecca by the arm and pulling her along as they ran for the small cargo ship in front of them.

  “I can’t…I can’t…”

  “Yes, you can. Just keep running,” Mav said. “We’re almost there.”

  “I don’t want to go,” Rebecca said, but Mav didn’t hear her. He was too busy pulling off shots with one hand and hauling her along like a child with the other. She was in too much of a daze to fight him or pull away. She could get him killed if she did that. He might kill her. Kat might kill her. Hell, the people she thought were her friends and colleagues might kill her.

  They reached the ship and Kat began climbing the ramp. “Come on! We don’t have much time. They’ll be getting the backup systems working soon.”

  Rebecca stared at Kat and Mav’s blurry expressions. She was too afraid to wipe away her tears.

  “Mav…” Kat said, warning in her voice.

  “We can’t leave her,” Mav said.

  “I planted some false alarms that there’s no way they’ll believe she did it all,” Kat said. “Come on, just leave her.”