by A. B. Keuser
“Should I ask?”
“It’s nothing vital.” Si wrapped his arm around her and pulled her toward the elevator. “While you’re waiting for Lyz, I think we need to talk about Kosz. I’m not sure what I should expect after all this time.”
“Honestly, not a lot has changed. I mean, there’s a small Pääom contingent placed there, but they stick to their base—probably afraid of an ambush in the streets.”
“They haven’t beaten the local citizens into submission yet?”
“They don’t think Roskakori—Kosz—is worth it. You were there before. Would you have bothered?”
“No, but then I wasn’t the one telling people I would make the rest of the system as beautiful as Pääoma.”
The elevator doors opened and he led her down the hall toward the ship’s briefing room.
“Well, they did make the rest of the system into something prettier than what it was, but the inner planets are still just as oppressed. The further out the systems are, the less they care. Roskakori is one of the furthest, and unlike Ruma, they don’t send political dissidents there anymore. They only keep the contingent on hand in case they need to put someone specific down.”
Si’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Someone specific…. Like one of the many Abolitionist leaders who ended up there.”
“Yeah. They’ve publicized a few. Pretend like they just found them, like the men they’re about to execute were plotting to destroy the stronghold….”
“What makes you think they’re lying about that? It was a pretty normal tactic back in my day.”
Dani tried not to laugh and failed. “Roskakori is too out of the way. If the Abolitionists really wanted to get anything done, they’d go for a higher priority target. But they can’t because they’re stuck on that damned planet.”
“Red-flagged?”
“And then some. When Spineless Heinrich jumped sides, he gave everyone up. And I mean everyone.” She felt the pang of loss all over again as she said it.
“He was the one who told them about your dad and me… being friends.”
“Welcome to the reason I only blamed you for that for a few years.” She’d been unbearably childish. “Basically, no one is willing to transport the Abolitionists. It’s pretty much a death sentence to move anyone red-flagged in the Pääom databases, and your old friends are smart enough not to try anything. To be honest, I think they’re all waiting for something.”
“Hopefully it’s me.” He paused, glancing at her, “Why haven’t you been red-flagged?”
“Oh, I was. And as far as the Pääom central systems think I still am. As long as I’m not so arrogant as to try to slip back onto Pääoma, I don’t have a problem getting on or off world.”
“It probably helps that you steal most of the ships that get you off world.”
Shrugging she said, “It’s a living.” She did her best not to sound hurt. “Obie, can you bring up the personnel files on all the Pääom officials stationed on Roskakori?”
A row of five faces populated the screen. Dani didn’t comment on Obie’s silence, there were too many other concerns floating around in her head. Specifically bachelor number two. Gripping tight to the table, she forced herself to stay standing.
“What is Vôner doing there?” Her skin crawled as she said his name and she fought the urge to run back to Si’s cabin and throw herself into a cold shower.
The face filled the screen. Black eyes rimmed in red, burns marring his sickly pink skin. She shoved her tongue between her teeth to keep from clenching them. Her knuckles rubbed across the side of her jaw.
Yes official. Jeba’s voice echoed in her mind.
“Why do I know that name?” She heard Si take a step toward her, but he stopped the moment she looked at him.
She knew what her face said… all the things she’d hoped he’d never have to see. There was only one man in the systems she truly feared. He stared back at her from the screen, a leering smile spread across his thin lips.
“He’s the chief of the Pääom’s secret police. At least that’s what they call themselves. They’re a murder squad. If he’s on Rosk—” Closing her eyes, she turned away from the screen, not wanting to see him, much less think about him. The latter was required. “No one else could know where we’re headed, right? This has to be a coincidence.”
“He’s just one man.” Si stared at the screen behind her, his eyes studying every feature of the man’s face.
“So are you.” She swallowed roughly and turned back to the picture. “He’s made his way to the top by climbing over countless bodies. I met him the first time right after you left to take over Obie. He a low level official back then, assigned to the schools, searching for early dissidents.” Jeba had been joking. She cursed under her breath. “He disappeared from the schools about the same time you dropped into the Void. He was the one who came to collect… who told us about Holly…who…” She didn’t dare let her mind wander to that part of her institutionalization. “He is my own personal persecutor. If I couldn’t blame Spineless Heinrich for what happened to my family… I think that Vôner would have found a way to make it all happen anyway.”
“What about the others?” As he said it, the picture shifted back into line and Danielle took a deep breath as she turned to the other faces. “Do you recognize any of them?”
“No, but this is a crap position. You only make it there if you’ve done something to upset the higher ups—but not so bad as to send you to the camps—or if you’re completely fresh meat.”
“So why’s Vôner there?”
“Supervising an execution? Dealing with a subordinate? Picking out the vicious cream of the crop to add to his murder squad? Why do sociopathic monsters do anything? I’m sure there’s a reason, but I couldn’t begin to guess what it is.”
“Then let’s deal with that if it comes up. There’s no point in dwelling on it.”
“Obie, take them off the screen.” She turned to look at his uniform. If she erased the insignias, it almost looked like the Pääom's. “You’re going to need to change before we get there. But I can assure you right now, Mr. Rabbit isn’t going to fool anyone. Especially not if Vôner finds us.”
“Then we’d better make sure he doesn’t.” Si pulled her into him, one hand pressed firmly into her lower back, the other tracing along the bird’s wings on her chest. “There’s more you’re not telling me about this guy, and I’m not going to make you relive that. But I do want to know. Yella, I want to know everything about the fifteen years I missed. Even if it’s bad. That doesn’t mean you have to tell me. Now, I need you to stop stressing out over him, because you’re going to stress everyone else out—including me—and I think we’re going to need to go into this calm and collected.”
Dani thought of the many ways Lyz suggested she relax in the past. Thought of what they did and didn’t have time for. Wove her hands together behind his neck and let herself think of all the reasons she’d wanted him before she knew the truth about monsters and men. Those thoughts all wound back to Vôner. So she cleared her mind of everything else, until only she and Si existed in the universe. She needed to get away from the claustrophobic feeling curling around her. Burying her face in his neck, she knew there were things that were impossible to forget.
With a deep breath, she let out the words that she’d kept locked inside her for last five years. “I’m scared.”
She laughed at how pathetic the words sounded now that she’d said them. She felt like she’d reverted back to her teenage self.
“I’ve kept myself from saying that for so long. Now that I have… well, it sounds even more childish than I thought it would.”
Si’s arms wrapped more tightly around her as his lips fell to her hair, “I’m scared too.”
She bit her lip at the thought. “Don’t try to make me feel better. You’re Osiris Bowlin, nothing scares you.”
“Things scare me, all the time.”
“Like what?”
“Like the idea that while I was stuck in that cryo chamber, I could have lost you. Helplessness is not something I’m used to… not something I want to experience again, and yet, here I am, firmly in Obie’s control with no chance of stopping her if she decided to vent us all.”
“She won’t vent you.”
“All the more reason to keep you with me at all times.”
“And I thought you enjoyed my company… silly me.”
“I enjoy a lot more than just your company.” His hand tilted her jaw upward and his lips brushed across hers.
“Hope I’m not interrupting anything juicy,”
Dani’s head swiveled to the door, where Lyz stood with her arms crossed and a wicked little smile on her lips.
“That’s exactly what you were hoping for.”
She waved a tattooed hand as if batting the suggestion away. “Hey don’t get mad at me because you picked a public place. We’ll meet you up top.”
As she stepped out of the hatch and disappeared along the corridor, Dani started to untangle herself from Si. He seemed reluctant to let her go. She kissed him lightly on the corner of his mouth, and laced her fingers through his and pulled him out of the conference room.
“The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can tell the others I’m taking a vacation until we hit Roskakori. Lyz loves when I let her take charge, and I think we could both use a little downtime before we have to face what waits for us when we hit the landing pad.”
“Whatever you say, Captain.” His hand slipped around her waist and he steered her toward the ladderway.
Danielle would have come back with a comment about him taking orders, but a figure turned the corner ahead of them, pulling her attention away from Si.
Kiori moved toward them, her eyes darting down each corridor as she walked, her finger pressed against the barrel of the gun in her hand.
“Seen Gill?” She asked as they neared her.
“Not recently? I thought he’d be with you.”
“Was.” She said looking into the med bay. “Checking something.”
“I’ll let him know you’re looking for him....” She watched the petite weapons officer move further down the corridor without acknowledging the gesture. “I told him to keep an eye on Goo. He doesn’t disobey orders.”
“We’ll figure out what’s going on after we get the Mandall’s tracer out of Obie’s systems.” He turned her back toward the ladderway and as she slipped through the hatch, she heard the metallic rap of a gun firing above her.
FIFTEEN
The discharge above came from an old style projectile weapon, like the one Si had secured around Yella’s hip. He didn’t like the possibilities that brought to his mind. A hull breach would have already resulted in Obie immediately sealing off all hatches until it could be systematically contained. Since nothing had swung shut around them, he figured he could write that one off.
Yella raced up the ladder ahead of him, the gun on her hip was the only thing keeping him from catching her ankle and forcing her to let him go first. Before the shot sounded, he’d enjoyed the idea of following her up, even in the dark confines of the ladderway, he could appreciate her assets from below. Now he rather wished he was ahead of her—and likewise armed.
He’d be right behind her and knew he’d either be the targeted, or be able to talk Adi down. He hoped to Hell, Obie hadn’t planted some idea in her head the way she had with Richter. And if it wasn’t Adi… who else could it be?
None of Yella’s surviving crew would go after her… unless he’d read them incorrectly.
As Yella reached deck one and stepped through the already open hatch, his stomach clenched at the idea he might have miscalculated.
Flinging himself through the hatch, he saw Yella disappear into the bridge. He swore under his breath and pushed his way through the hatch.
Inside, Mopeña and Lyz lay on the floor. Lyz crumpled beneath the navigation console, Yella crouched at her side, fingers moving over her colorful friend, a stricken look blossoming on her face. Standing quickly, Yella turned to him, her panic lessened momentarily.
“She’s unconscious, but otherwise seems fine. Going to have a throbbing bump on her head, if anything else is wrong. I won’t know until I get her down to the medbay… Shit.”
She bent over Mopeña and Si could see the dark pool as he moved around the bridge to where the med kit was stored. When he returned, Yella was on her knees beside the felled pilot, the white fabric of her pants turning reddish brown as they soaked up Mopeña’s blood.
“Don’t you die, you bastard. Lyz will never forgive me.” She wrenched the med kit from his hands and pulled it open, tearing the seal apart in her haste. She snatched the pen comm from her pocket, leaving another rust colored stain near her waist band and barked quick orders into it.
No reply.
Si pulled the med-scanner from the torn pack and swept it over Willy. There was a slow pulse. He was breathing, but barely.
“Obie, get someone up here with a gurney. Now!” She turned back to Si. “I can’t do much for him here, I need to pull out that bullet and sew up—”
The scanner in Si’s hand let out a low sustained tone, and Dani’s eyes went wide as she turned back to Willy. Tearing the defibrillator pads from their packaging, she ripped open his shirt, slapping the pads on and turning to pull the jolter from the pack. Si pulled her backward, moving her out of the pool of blood as she calibrated the machine.
“Yella, he flatlined, that’s not going to do any good.”
Her hands trembled as they hovered over the machine, the high pitched tone ringing through the bridge unceasing.
She ripped through the med kit, pulling out a vial of adrenaline and tore off the protective plastic cap. Plunging the needle into the pilot’s chest, she sucked in a long breath as the vial depressed its contents automatically.
The man convulsed and the scanner in Si’s hands let out a strand of erratic beeps to match the readout in his hand.
“Willy?”
Si turned to see Lyz pulling herself up, using the console as leverage. “Lyz, you need to sit down. You hit your head—”
“Oh my God!” Her eyes fell on Mopeña’s face as Si grabbed her arm to steady her. “No, he can’t… Dani. He can’t.”
Yella’s eyes trailed from the pooling blood to the pilot. “I’m sorry Lyz… I don’t know if this is going to work.”
Lyz lurched forward and Si locked his arms around her waist. She flailed, an elbow catching him in the side of the head before he could duck.
“Let go of me!” She wrenched out of his grip and slid to the ground, crawling to Mopeña’s side, she wrapped herself around him as he spasmed. “He can’t die, Dani. He pushed me out of the way… he shouldn’t have done that… he shouldn’t be like this...”
Yella wrapped her arm around Lyz, bloody hands leaving dark stains on the tech’s tattooed arms. “Go back to your bunk, clean up and keep your nose down. I don’t know what’s going on, but I need to get Willy taken care of before I can figure any of it out.”
Lyz sucked in harsh breaths between choking sobs, but did as she was told, stumbling out the bridge hatch and disappearing along the corridor.
“Is that a good idea?” He asked as Yella turned back to Willy.
“It’s better than having her up here, trying to push in. If I can get Willy stable, I can pull that slug out of him.” She shook her head as she moved around putting another large gauze pad over the wound and plucking the adrenaline needle from his chest. She threw it aside and Si watched as it clattered to the far bulkhead. “Get the gurney; I can’t help him anymore up here.”
Si left with a quick nod.
Once out in the corridor, he saw the streaked remnants of Lyz passage, blood ran along one wall for a time and then, it seemed she’d crossed over, another smear picked up a few feet ahead on the opposite side. She must have slalomed back and forth to the lift.
He turned the corner to the lift doors, this deck
’s gurney was latched to the wall in the panel across from them. Kiori was already there.
She wrenched the apparatus from the wall and kicked out the wheeled legs, turning to him in a feline motion, her hand going to the arm pocket on her jacket.
Hands up, Si took a step back. “Just me.” He moved to the other side of the gurney and helped her push it quickly down the hall.
“It’s not Gill.” The petite weapons officer may have been asking him a question, but she phrased it as fact.
“Someone shot Mopeña. We still don’t know who, or why. But Yella needs to get him down to the medbay and pull the slug out of him as soon as possible.”
“Projectile weapons?” The distaste was evident enough in her tone, he didn’t need to see the twisted contortion that sprung to her face.
“Yeah, real class act whoever it was.”
“It wasn’t Adilyn.” Kiori said with a knit brow.
“I didn’t think so either, but I can’t be sure of anyone.”
“Was with me.”
He didn’t like the idea of leaving Dani alone, even in the bridge, a hundred feet from him. And though Kiori was the least emotive person he’d ever met, he knew that if she’d spend this much time searching for him, the engineer did mean something to her.
“Go find Gill, he might need you right now. I think we can manage on our own.” She gave him an appreciative smile as she ducked through the ladderway hatch and disappeared into the dimness.
He pulled the gurney up over the hatch tread—something that would be a pain once they got Willy on the thing—and wheeled it over to them. Dani had coaxed him back to cognizance and he was holding pressure on his own wound.
Dani sent a grateful smile his way as she stood and made her way to the pilot’s feet. “Grab him under the arms, but be careful, he’s got a collapsed lung from that shot.”
They hefted Willy up and Si considered it a feat that they did it with only a heavy handful of curses stringing from the man’s mouth.
He switched on the gurney’s antigravity assist and they wheeled him through to the lift. Si was happy he didn’t ask about the blood smeared on the walls. He’d have Obie send out a bulkhead scrubber as soon as they had a chance to catch their breath.