Oath Breaker (Death of Empire Book 1)

by A. B. Keuser

  Danielle cursed herself for sending Lyz away. The techie would have been on hand to help with restraints. Dani stared into Osiris’s unblinking brown eyes and waited for his decision. Friend of foe. Fighting would put her in the latter category.

  The ship wouldn’t help her. There was no point in crying out. Her only hope was to remain non-threatening while his sluggish brain caught up.

  His hand on her throat shifted—undoubtedly to get a better grip before he strangled her—and she watched silently as his eyes traveled to hers. His thumb brushing across her lips.

  “Thank you.”

  And then he kissed her.

  He held her lips firmly to his, the hand entwined in her hair loosened its grip while his other thumb caressed the side of her neck. She pushed away from him, but he was too strong for her to fight off, even after a decade and a half in cryo.

  He finally released her and fell backward, out of reach. His arms sagged to the sides of the bed and he murmured something unintelligible before his head lolled away.

  She swallowed heavily and sank into her chair. “Shit.”

  THREE

  Awareness came slowly…. soft beeping echoed throughout his half-sleeping thoughts, and the smell of antiseptic soured in his nose… and then all at once.

  Osiris Bowlin crashed back into consciousness with a choking gasp.

  Hands held him down, human hands, so he let himself be pushed back. Allowed the swimming sensation in his head to take over. And he breathed heavily. In through his nose, out through his mouth.

  Eyes, blurred, he tried to focus on the head hovering above him. Copper skin framed by hair so dark it should have been black, but wasn’t. She looked down on him with an uneasy gaze, a surgical mask over her mouth.

  Haloed in the light of a diagnostic lamp above her head, his sluggish mind tried to convince him he knew her. That was impossible.

  “The war?” His voice came out croaked and brittle. He needed water.

  “It’s over. You lost.” Eyes narrowed, she asked, “You’re not going to kiss me again, are you?”

  Wincing at her tone, he said, “Not just yet.”

  His head was still floating, but he did remember doing that. Attacking the woman who brought him back from the dead was a real dick move. Pulling his hand to his face, he rubbed at his eyes, trying to chase away the lingering fuzziness. She handed him a plastic cup.

  “You’ve been in cryonic stasis for fifteen years. I’ve run a full diagnostic panel, but technology is fallible. Just because I didn’t find anything doesn’t mean you're safe.”

  “Tell me about it.” He grimaced, wondering if she’d heard him.

  Of course she had. Obie was always listening.

  “I’ve got a headache. Can your brain get frostbite?” He grinned at his bad joke and pressed his finger along the ridge of his eyebrow.

  She watched him for a brief moment, wary eyes searching his face, and then she looked sharply away as if disgusted. She tapped in a series of commands to the small medical tablet in her hand.

  With her attentions elsewhere Osiris’ focus fell to the vee collar of her shirt. His gaze stopped just below her collarbone, tracing the slant of black wings, intricate lock, and the shape of the crow’s beak. Without a thought, he reached out. His fingers brushed against the copper dragonfly pendant resting over the birds’ heads. It was too familiar and yet, he couldn’t place it.

  She lurched backward, as though his touch had sent an electric pulse through her. Watching her closely as she took yet another step away from him, placing herself well out of arm’s reach. The lines of her artist were familiar; he didn’t have to look down at the skeleton and music box on his forearm to see the resemblance in the form. She’d had the chest piece done by the Heart-Man.

  Her skin was what he thought was familiar. That had to be it. She reminded him of old friends.

  Her hand went to the necklace, fidgeting with it. He knew the movement, but something was off. Something was missing. If his brain wasn’t running at one-third capacity maybe he’d remember.

  His last moments of consciousness flashed through his memory.

  Jarrod stood in front of him. Abolitionist-issued pulse rifle squared against the man’s shoulder. His face an apologetic mask. Adilyn and Richter already shut in their tubes. There was no way—no one—to call for backup.

  “The others?” his voice croaked and he took a drink of the water before continuing. “Are they still alive?”

  “They’re still frozen, but they’re ticking.” She’d crossed her arms over her chest, one hand still playing with the necklace. “No offense, I had no intention of unfreezing you—your ship forced my hand in that. And I sure as hell don’t want to unfreeze the rest of your crew. Though the lieutenant looks like someone I’d get along with.”

  “My wife usually drives people away with a single glare.” He blinked, pressing the heel of his hand to his eye socket as he realized what he’d just said. “I’m not sure why I… she’s not my…. Maybe we shouldn’t ask any hard questions for an hour or so.”

  “So… she’s not your wife?”

  Disappointment tinged her words, but he didn’t know why.

  “She was, briefly. She’s not anymore,” He shook his head trying to make sense of the jumble of his thoughts. “More importantly, she’s my crew. It’s my responsibility to keep them safe.” Even if he’d done a miserable job of it so far.

  She turned away from him. “Crew is family. Don’t hurt mine. I won’t hurt yours. They’re both safe as long as they’re in those tubes.”

  He couldn’t shake the odd familiarity, but he couldn’t place her.

  The door to the medbay slid open, tearing Osiris’ attention away from the alluring doctor. Gaze falling on a familiar face, the air rushed from his lungs in a silent, disbelieving laugh.

  “Lyz told me we have a new patient? What did Stugg do this ti—” José stopped dead in his tracks, jaw dropping. “I don’t believe it.”

  Si didn’t either.

  He managed to not wince at the ugly scars the man wore.

  “If you’re on my ship, I think I’ll be in good—if maniacal—hands.”

  “Oh yeah?” José moved quickly to the bedside. “You’re alive and you’re…”

  “Young?” Osiris hadn’t had the opportunity to look in a mirror yet, but the mechanics of cryonics were pretty easy to grasp.

  José smiled, it was the one Osiris remembered from the times he visited the Cholla family. Osiris glanced at the too familiar woman, but she’d turned away, slowly taking stock of the vials in static storage, stealing any hope he had for determining familial resemblance. New memories weren’t taking hold quickly enough to have a good mental image of her.

  José moved to pick up the chart, “You’ll have to tell me how you managed that one. I haven’t found the fountain of youth, as mi sobrina constantly reminds me.”

  In his periphery, Osiris saw the woman stop sorting through the vials. Pushing them back into their rack, she moved a handful onto the tray in front of her. Her shoulders rigid, she didn’t turn back to them.

  Si shrugged. “Cryonic stasis. I don’t suggest it. Got some freezer burn around my gray matter.”

  Pinching at the bridge of his nose, Si moved to crack his neck. The movement pulled at the tight tendons, but otherwise left him without relief.

  Letting out a long sigh, the woman walked to his side and pressed an inoculation pen against his neck. “That should deal with your freezer burn.” She turned from him to José. “Everything reads clear, I didn’t mean for Lyz to bother you, but I guess it’s good you two will get to catch up.”

  José clasped her shoulders as though he’d only just realized she was still in the room. “Danielle, this is amazing! All those years we thought the Pääom had blown him to stardust…” His voice trailed into nothing as she glared at him viciously.

  Warmth flooded through him. He didn’t know if it was the drugs or her.

  “Yella?” Osir
is’ brow furrowed as his eyes swept over her.

  At the sound of the nickname he’d given her so long ago, she flinched. Blinking, she met him with a hard look, pulled off the mask that had obscured her face and scowled at him before she returned to the vials. Without a word to him, she plucked a pen from the nearest drawer and began making notations on the tablet.

  Even after seeing José fifteen years older, he hadn’t once suspected the woman playing nurse to be his best friend’s niece. His mind was sluggish as he tried to do the math. When he left, he’d imagined a dozen futures for her. None of them had left her with the haunted look that graced her features now. It had been fifteen years….

  She was older than him.

  “Danielle was the last one to give up hope, even after—” José moved behind her, his hand dropping to grip her arm and squeezing. “Hell, when you told me we were coming after the Breaker, well I thought maybe you still thought….”

  She shook off his hand and shot him a warning glance. “We don’t talk about the past.”

  José’s face tightened.

  “It’s like a little family reunion.” Si laughed trying to dispel the sudden tension. His attempt at humor fell flat and he knew it had been the wrong choice before she moved.

  Yella turned, leaning against the counter. “Not until we unfreeze his wife. Then it’ll be a real party.”

  “Wife?” José looked truly confused as he turned from her to Si.

  “Ex,” Si said. Fifteen years of cryo and he still couldn’t bury that mistake.

  The way her jaw set, her eyes locked on him, made his lips tingle with the memory of his first attempt at waking up.

  “Adilyn’s here?” José’s words pulled his gaze away.

  All Yella’s attention focused on José but her response wasn’t angry. “Am I the only one who didn’t know he’d gotten married?”

  “Don’t look so betrayed. He was eighteen, and someone told me it was a bet.” José turned back to Si. “Are you looking for number two?”

  Osiris didn’t laugh as his old friend jerked his head toward his niece, waggling his eyebrows.

  “You know what? I’m not going to stand here and let you try to sell me like a prostitute.” Yella looked like she’d suddenly passed the threshold of infuriated. “You’re the doctor. You’re the one who’s happy to see him. You deal with him. I’ve got more important things to do. Let’s start by making sure as few of the rest of the crew find out about him as possible. I don’t know which of them would kill him or kiss him.”

  Yella left, without bothering to turn back. Osiris’ eyes followed her through the door into the chief medical officer’s office. Mad as she might be, she hadn’t gone far, and it was clear she wasn’t letting him out of her sight yet.

  “What happened to make the woman I left behind so angry?” Si did his best not to look toward the CMO’s office. Whatever she’d given him was clearing up the fuzzies bouncing around his brain, but he was still feeling sluggish. Memories floated through his head of Yella in a white dress blowing bubbles with a gaggle of kids running around her on the front lawn while the heavy aroma of steaks grilling wafted through the air.

  José interrupted his thoughts with a sigh. “She’s had to do a lot to survive, Si.” Hi words were laced with the ugly tinge of regret. “When you went missing, the whole conflict went to hell. We lost… well, we lost more than just the war.”

  He didn’t want to know, but he had to ask. “Dan?”

  The look on his old friend’s face told him the answer before he spoke. “He’s gone. Most of the people you know are.” José sat on the cot across from him and took a few deep breaths before pursing his lips and forcing a smile. “I don’t want to talk about how depressing our ancient history is. How the hell are you still alive?”

  “Firstly, I am ancient history, and secondly, I honestly have no idea.” He glanced toward the ceiling and thought back to the reason Jarrod forced him into that cryo pod… he pushed the thought away not daring to speak his thoughts around Obie.

  José watched him closely, a concerned scowl covering his face. “You need rest. Cryo can mess you up.”

  “Am I going to live, doc?”

  “I taught Danielle everything she knows about medicine. Well… I retaught her after the Pääom tried to screw it up. So if she says you’re clear you should be.”

  José turned to look through the window where Yella sat at a computer typing away furiously. “I was worried about her at first, especially when the Pääom took her away. She’s got more spine than any of the abolitionist captains I’ve ever met. I’m not just saying that because she’s my niece. She’s got a crew more loyal than that old bulldog you used to have, and the ones she had to pull on board for this job know better than to cross that invisible line. It’s not the life Dan wanted for her…” He let out a long puff of air and smiled painfully. “She’s managed well enough.”

  “She’s Captain Cholla now? I have been out of it for a long while.”

  José laughed at him, turning back to Yella, his face fell. “The war changed us all, Si. Danielle’s no exception to that. She fought her way to where she is. No one gave her this command and I can assure you, no one is going to take it from her either.

  “The galaxy you knew no longer exists. She’s still here. Dan may not have noticed the way you looked at her, the way you’re still looking at her, but I did.” José gave him a knowing look. “Maybe the fates had a different plan for you…. After all, she’s the one who found you. People have been scouring the galaxy for the Breaker since you went missing. I’d chew on that for a while.”

  Si searched his old friend’s face, trying to see if he’d somehow read Si’s thoughts, “You do remember she’s seven years younger than me, right?”

  “Think about what you just said, Si. The last fifteen years don’t count for you anymore. You’re as old as you were when you went in. She’s forty-two.”

  “I think you might be a side effect of the cryo, José. This is just a stasis dream right? I’m still a popsicle, and you’re both figments of my imagination.” He leveled a gaze at Yella.

  José nodded, “Hear me out. She’s had to be real strong. She was all by herself for a very long time—hell, if she hadn’t found me, I wouldn’t be alive right now. She’s not the same girl she was when you left, she comes loaded for bear with her own baggage. If anyone I know can stand up to that—could possibly share that burden—it’s you. Haven’t met a man yet who could stand up to her, let alone stand beside her. And, you could do a lot worse.”

  “Why does this feel like a well-practiced sales pitch?”

  “It’s a cold universe and not a place you want to tread alone. I’d like to see her happy again, at least once before I die.”

  “Pretty sure this conversation would make her boiling mad.”

  Ignoring him, José said. “There’s not much in the way of competition on board, so don’t wait until we hit land and she runs off.”

  “Thin crew?” He couldn’t imagine trying to fly Obie with less than eight—if they didn’t know about her software. He’d asked the question trying to move away from the conversation. José didn’t take the hint.

  “No, we’ve got ten on board, a weapons officer who’s less than half your height and has a strange form of claustrophobia that manifests itself in murderous tendencies. Two are dating each other, the others in a rather toxic relationship with the pilot, and Si, especially right now, he could take you. Besides, I don’t know how Danielle would react if you decided to go for her best friend—you’ll recognize her by the way. She looks like a rainbow threw up on her.”

  “I’ve been asleep for a very long time. I’m not looking to jump into bed with anyone.”

  “Sure you’re not.” José moved away, sliding the tabular chart back into the edge of the bed, where it beeped softly, hooked up to Osiris’ heart. He stepped into the CMO’s office and the door shut with a sigh, making them impossible to hear.

  Osiris watc
hed them talk briefly before José moved back into the secondary storage area. His eyes traced Yella’s face. She wiggled her nose, as though it itched, and a silver stud glinted as the overhead light caught the movement.

  Scrubbing a hand over his face, Osiris tried to reconcile himself to the missing fifteen years.

  He caught her gaze as she looked up, holding it briefly before she started talking and looked back to the computer in front of her.

  José rejoined her and glanced to the ceiling.

  Oath Breaker. Osiris knew better than anyone how far his ship could be trusted. He’d need to talk to them both, to warn them.

  He slid down from the cot and his head swam with the sudden movement. It was all he needed to remember that impulsive behavior would help no one. He did need to tell them… but not here. There were only a few places the ship wouldn’t be able to hear them.

  If the scowls she cast his way were any indication, Yella was not going to be enthusiastic when he asked for a private meeting in his quarters. After their bizarre discussion, José might push her in and lock the door.

  Pulling the IV line from the needle stuck in his hand, he crossed the infirmary to join them. He scratched at the fabric covering his arm. No one had bothered to undress him, so he didn’t have to worry about the drafty shifts he knew were stored under the beds.

  The thought of Yella undressing him was a bad place to go. “You’re being stupid, Si.”

  She was the first woman he’d seen in fifteen years—regardless of how quickly they’d passed—he was bound to have some form of a reaction.

  But it was Danielle Cholla… and he’d made more than one promise concerning her. “Shit.”

  The door to the office opened with a gentle shush. Yella muttered a curse at Obie, while José watched the ceiling in silence.

  “Just assign the crew bunks, okay? Kiori has to have a view port—she’ll go a little batty without one. Put Lyz and Mopeña across the hall from each other, and preferably away from the others. If nothing else, make sure they and Gilroy are as far apart as possible.”