Exile's Throne

by Rhonda Mason

  “What more do you need?”

  “Where is Brid stationed?” He looked at the map. “Does he have some reason to request that Mesa be transferred to wherever we’re supposedly transferring her?”

  Ygreda looked at him suspiciously, as if he’d asked a trick question. “What does that matter?”

  Malkor counseled himself to patience by remembering that Ordoch was a peaceful planet before they had arrived. It didn’t have a military of any sort, and while the cities had a token police force, there was no career path that in any way resembled the training Malkor and his octet had received over their lifetimes. Even Kayla, for all her fighting prowess and bodyguard skills, knew little about running an op or designing a sting. Ygreda the spymaster had probably taught herself everything she knew, and that only in the last five years or less.

  “Our phony transfer orders won’t be approved if they aren’t realistic, no matter who signs them,” he said. “If Brid oversees a food depot, he doesn’t need a hyperstream drive engineer. And if he doesn’t have a prison under his command, then he’s not going to be taking custody of a prisoner.”

  That seemed to make sense to them. Unfortunately, no one threw out brilliant ideas in the wake of his statement. Instead, all three members of the rebellion leaned forward in their chairs, waiting to see what brilliant plan he had.

  And that, he thought to himself, is why you Wyrds need us.

  Being devious was second nature to imperials—or for IDC agents, at least.

  * * *

  After hours of work, Vayne and Kayla sat in the commissary grabbing a quick lunch.

  They weren’t the only ones. Tanet sat by himself, speed reading something on a datapad while he ate. He still had a ventilation suit on; he must have been the half of a team on the unpowered levels, and was heading back to it after lunch. The captain sat with Uncle Ghirhad by the bank of windows. As usual they were smiling and laughing, cracking each other up. Benny sat at the captain’s elbow, not joining in on the conversation.

  ::We need to change out the calorie pack in the prisoners’ barracks.:: Vayne’s voice sounded low in her mind, as if someone might overhear—which was impossible. He and Kayla were across the room from everyone else, situated in the corner by the door, but the physical distance wasn’t necessary to keep a psi conversation quiet if Vayne only projected to her.

  Kayla organized her thoughts quickly. Worry about her inadequacy as a ro’haar without psi powers in this box, concern for Malkor in that box… She tucked a few more things neatly away, then lowered her mental shields enough so that Vayne could slip into her mind.

  I agree. There was no way she wanted Kendrik and the others to be continually overdosed if she could help it. The effects will take some time to fade, so I don’t think the switch will be noticeable for a while.

  ::Hopefully we’ll have figured out what the frutt is going on by then.::

  Not that they’d had any luck in that area so far. Vayne and Tia’tan had been carefully using their psi powers as they worked, searching for the minds of the stepa or an area they couldn’t penetrate with their skills. This had been done initially, after the discovery that someone had woken more crew members from cryo, but Ida and her crew had done most of the searching. They hadn’t reported finding anyone. Was that because there was no one to find, or for other reasons?

  Security codes changed this morning: we have no way to access the barracks.

  ::And Tanet wasn’t paired with Tia’tan, so he didn’t confide his code to her.::

  Kayla ate another spoonful of the stew concoction she’d synthed up. The options on the Yari’s food synthesizer were truly hideous—the technology had come a long way in five hundred years.

  You’re not gonna like what I have to say.

  She felt Vayne’s hesitation. ::What?::

  You have to read Tanet’s mind so we can get his code.

  Silence. Not just silence, he had pulled back from her. She waited him out.

  ::No.::

  She waited.

  ::I’m not doing it.:: He was practically pushing her away.

  She waited.

  ::We’ll get it some other way. I refuse to violate him like that.::

  Images spun out in her mind: Vayne sitting in a chair, Dolan standing over him, gleefully plucking thoughts from his head. Dolan was especially obsessed with Kayla, dragging memories from Vayne time and again. Another session, this time Vayne curled on the floor in a ball. A nasty event had just occurred thanks to the Influencer—she didn’t know what exactly, he shielded that from her—and Dolan delighting in making Vayne relive it over and over. Dolan was a sadistic bastard. This is nothing like that.

  ::Invading someone’s mind without their permission is exactly that.::

  It’s not for your own sick amusement. You’re not looking for anything personal, it’s just a number.

  ::I can’t avoid personal things when I’m digging through his brain—I don’t know what I’ll find.::

  I’ll prompt him: the number will be right on the surface. She didn’t wait for a reply, just set her mystery stew aside and rose.

  Giant hands pushed on her shoulders and hit her in the backs of her knees, forcing her to sit down—hard. She tried to control her expression as the awkward landing caused people to glance her way, but her eyes must have been huge.

  Did you just—

  ::Still not as bad as picking through someone’s brain:: he snapped. ::At least you knew it was coming.::

  I never expect my il’haar to manhandle me unless it’s for my safety.

  ::What if it’s for my safety?:: Vayne sucked in a breath as if shocked, as if he hadn’t meant to say that. His anger at her roiled through her mind, but beneath it was something she hadn’t recognized before: fear.

  That fear killed her. Her heart welled with empathy for all her twin had gone through.

  From the corner of her eye, though, she saw Tanet setting the datapad aside and finishing the remnants of his lunch. Her need to protect Vayne warred with her natural “let’s get this done” drive, and for a split second, the tiniest moment, an image of the incarcerated Wyrds flashed in her mind’s eye.

  ::Damnit, Kayla.::

  I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. Shit. She was used to having Corinth in her head at times, but he wasn’t so sensitive. He wouldn’t have caught that thought.

  We’ll find another way. But she couldn’t see one, at the moment. It was near impossible to imagine letting Kendrik and the others eat poisoned food, whether they were crazy or homicidal or not.

  ::Damnit.::

  This time she didn’t know who that was directed at.

  ::Go.:: The single word was bundled in so many layers of emotion that she couldn’t make sense of it. ::Do it now, before I change my mind.::

  A part of her wanted to forget the whole thing, but she had to trust her il’haar to make his own decisions of what he could and couldn’t handle, or he wouldn’t trust hers.

  She rose from her seat again, this time without any resistance. She brought her cup to the synthesizer to refill, then sauntered over to Tanet’s table and took a seat without asking.

  The physicist gave her a friendly smile. “It being nice to see you.”

  She smiled back, it was hard not to. Tanet had been the friendliest of the crew from the start. She almost felt bad for what they were about to do.

  “It’s good to be around so many Ordochians.” She sipped at the water. “Over the years, I lost hope that I’d ever be home again.”

  “I have feelings the same. Still, I have not traveled into the Tear, yet. I am not knowing if I have it in here,” he tapped his chest, “to on Ordoch arrive in this new future.”

  They sat in silence a moment, each considering their strange future in Ordoch’s new reality.

  ::Kayla…:: Vayne’s voice was a warning growl.

  Tanet sighed. “At least some of the future is on the ship here, the rebels making it easier to be gaining comfort of our new-old world.�
�

  Kayla nodded, trying to find an opening to bring up the lock codes. “There is certainly plenty to do on the Yari, no need to return to Ordoch yet.”

  “The days being full each now. So much excitement we are having after the long sleep and waiting.” He leaned in. “I am enjoying much, do not tell the others.”

  She winked. “Your secret is safe with me.” She glanced at the chronometer, groaned, and stretched. “I think I better get back to it. But first, speaking of secrets…” This time she leaned in in a faux conspiratorial fashion. “I’m glad we’re working in pairs: I keep forgetting my security code.”

  “Yes! It did not change for five hundred years, now, every day changing.” He closed his eyes as if concentrating. “I have to make a picture of it in mind’s eye mine to hold on to it.”

  ::Got it:: Vayne said, and withdrew from her mind so quickly that she mentally staggered. The commissary doors slid open behind her and she knew that Vayne had left her entirely.

  “I’ll try that, thanks, Tanet.”

  He smiled and she felt like a burglar. Ah well, she’d done worse things.

  As she left the commissary, a rumble sounded deep in the belly of the ship. The vibrations shook the floor even at this level, the tremble shaking into the bones of her feet and rattling her teeth slightly.

  Holy—

  What the frutt was that? She hit the shipwide comm. “Are we under attack?” And where were the damn warning sirens?

  “Today is having another stress test of the engine,” Benny answered. “For many hours lasting.”

  How fun. The ship felt like it might shake apart.

  Sort of like her damn life.

  * * *

  It was the end of the evening, and Kayla stood in front of the bank of mirrors inside the communal officer bathroom, brushing her hair. Vayne still hadn’t communicated with her since she’d forced him to read Tanet’s mind. He’d skipped out on working with her the rest of the day, choosing instead to pair with one of the rebels, forcing her to do the same.

  Now it was late night and still no word. Crying on Tia’tan’s shoulder?

  The petty thought made her grumpy.

  Vayne would speak to her in his own time, when he could forgive her. If he could forgive her.

  Hey… He’s a grown-up, he could have refused. Could he have, though? With his ro’haar asking it of him, and the drugged crew members counting on him?

  There was no point in second-guessing herself all night… but she would, anyway.

  Right now Kayla felt as useful as a candle in space. While she’d relaxed in a hot shower, Malkor and Rigger were on Ordoch, neck deep in an op. Noar, Larsa, and Corinth monitored the stress testing of the engine’s structure, the rebels took turns keeping watch, and Toble tinkered away in one of the medical stations, formulating a series of tapers to step the sedatives down in the prisoners to avoid a catastrophic withdrawal. Since Tia’tan had been able to replace the calorie pack in their synthesizer without being detected, the prisoners would need the first of Toble’s anti-anxiety/sedative concoction soon.

  And here Kayla was, brushing her damp hair while she waited for reports from all the others who had actual useful things to do.

  What she really wanted was to join Vayne and Tia’tan in continuing their search for First Officer Zimmerman and any of the Yari’s still unaccounted-for crew members. She was useless in that regard, too, however. Now that they knew the Yari had psionic shielding devices, Vayne and Tia’tan were slinking through the powered sections of the ship using their senses to look for psionic dead spots.

  She could at least check up on Corinth. Kayla pulled her hair into a high ponytail, strapped a kris to each thigh over her leggings, and started toward the engine room. The walls of the corridor shook with the screeching vibrations rocketing through the hyperstream drive’s chassis. Larsa said the series of stress tests would run for at least thirty hours—sleeping should be a treat.

  She found Corinth, Larsa, and Noar in the control room overlooking the massive engine chamber. A dozen screens, each showing a different output, formed a bank of information. Each of them watched a different screen: it looked like they were cross-checking the readings against standardized charts.

  The plascrystal window overlooking the engine room rattled in its frame, and the vidscreens bounced on their mounts. Kayla laid her palm flat against the bulkhead on one wall. It was like getting a massage. Quite nice, if her teeth hadn’t also been rattling.

  “How long will it be like this?” she asked, and all three jumped. Apparently they’d been even more focused than they looked.

  ::Kay!:: Corinth flashed her a big smile, then quickly turned back to the screen he’d been watching. ::I’m tracking any vaporization of metals from the engine scaffolding.::

  “Have you found any?”

  He didn’t look up from the screen, just shook his head.

  “And is that a good thing?”

  ::Yup!::

  Similarly, after a brief glance in her direction, Noar and Larsa returned to their watches.

  “This phase of test of stress being over soon,” Larsa said. “Then the profile rests, rebuilds in intensity, and resets again.”

  “For thirty hours?”

  “Already halfway done,” Noar said, making it sound like the structure surviving this far into the testing was a success.

  Kayla stood in the doorway, watching the back of three heads. Yup, she was sooo useful these days.

  “Have you eaten today, Corinth?”

  ::Yup.::

  “Recently?”

  ::I think so?::

  He had an empty plate at his elbow, but that could have been from any number of days. She stepped closer behind him, leaned down, and sniffed. Someone might have brought him dinner, but no one had been making sure he’d bathed.

  ::Quit it, Kay.::

  “You’ve got a date with a shower, mister.”

  ::I will, I will, once these tests are done.::

  “Promise?”

  ::Promise.::

  She sighed. Somewhere along the way, during all the challenges of the last months, she’d let things drop. Who would have thought she’d be a better mother while they lived in a hovel in Fengar Swamp?

  Kayla stood watching him a little while longer, since for once she had nothing she needed to be doing. She missed Corinth more than she realized. She’d been so busy since they arrived, every day working to keep the ship safe for him and the people she loved, that she hadn’t spent much time with him. In fact, Vid and Trinan might even have had more contact than her. She put her arms around him, stinky teenage boy smell and all, and hugged him tight. He was no longer the frail waif he’d been on Altair Tri. The IDC agents had him eating for two, and he’d finally put some meat and muscle on his frame. He’d always be slim, but now he was healthy.

  ::Kay.:: He dragged her name out like it had two syllables. He finally squirmed and she let go.

  “Sorry.” Sorry that you’re growing up so fast all of a sudden,

  sorry that I’m gone all the time, sorry that five years of your life were stolen from you…

  Shrill beeping erupted from one of the many vidscreens Noar was monitoring. Kayla couldn’t tell which one it was at first, since they all showed a profusion of charts and lines and oscillations and colors. Then one of the screens, previously graphing a steadily rising line, shifted from orange to red-orange to red across the background. An endpoint appeared on the line all of a sudden, an inverted triangle with the words ESTIMATED CATASTROPHIC FAILURE POINT written inside.

  Larsa cursed, a string of swear words so antiquated it would have been funny… if the entire engine room wasn’t overheating like a spaceship on reentry.

  “How bad is it?” Kayla asked.

  “Not yet into the destruction phase, but the heat is not having the dissipation I hoped it would be having. Corinth?”

  ::The anodic film on the central shaft is beginning to vaporize:: he said to the room at large.r />
  Noar swiveled his chair to double-check Corinth’s readings. “He’s right, I’m seeing cracking from the thermal stress.”

  Larsa was furiously making calculations. Noar brought up a schematic of the venting system for the engine. “I don’t think it’s a problem with the heat syphoning and exhausting pipes.” He flipped through more schematics.

  “Is possible the temperature will stabilize, being as how self-stabilizing the structure is. Calculations showing possibility.” Larsa continued with more calculations.

  Kayla stared down into the engine room, but nothing looked different to her. “Can’t you just stop the test?”

  Larsa shook her head. “This testing profile is a series of long stressed and shortness, being necessary for full drive function. Absolutely needing to surviving this, or hope of mine of flying is lost.”

  “Well you might not have a choice.”

  Noar had flipped through more schematics. Suddenly he pointed to one that looked suspiciously like the outside of the ship. “The problem’s here. Where the outer pressure valve opens to cool the heat sink. It seems like something’s… clogging it?”

  “That is not making the sense.” Larsa looked up from her calculation, double-checking the double checking that had been done so far. “We cleared debris of the Mine Field from our outside area, leaving the space open. Nothing of trash can be there.”

  “Do you have an outer camera there?” Kayla didn’t like the sound of that warning beep, or Larsa’s intention to keep the test running. What the frutt would a meltdown of the drive’s structure do to the rest of the ship?

  “This being a ship of five hundred years past. Cameras we are having of only the critical areas.”

  Ah, shit. And she was enjoying her few hours out of an EMU. “Someone needs to go out there and clear it, or jam it open, or whatever.”

  “That is responsibility mine.”

  Kayla was already heading toward the door. “No way. I’m not sending the only engineer we have on a spacewalk. I’m not sending any five-hundred-year-old crew member on a spacewalk either, so don’t think of calling Benny or Tanet.” Without her psi powers, Kayla really was the most expendable person onboard. She turned back to Larsa. “Let me do this. This is the best way I can help.”