Oath Breaker (Death of Empire Book 1)

by A. B. Keuser

  Obie had prepped the med bay for them and they moved him to a bed quickly as Yella set the apparatus to do a more thorough scan and disappeared into the back room to clean up.

  Mopeña coughed, wincing in pain as he held the sopping gauze patch to the right side of his chest. Si pulled a new one from its drawer under the bed and moved the pilot’s hand to switch them.

  The hand caught him tightly around the throat before Si realized Mopeña was still conscious. Squeezing tightly, the pilot looked him dead in the eye.

  “I’ve heard a lot of stories about you, Osiris Bowlin.” They way Willy said it made his name sound like a curse… and maybe it was. “One thing that was said over and over when you disappeared was how it wasn’t right, how a man like you wouldn’t abandon people. Is that right?”

  His grip tightened as the pilot crushed his windpipe. “Yes,” Si rasped.

  “Good. Then you’re going to make me a promise. Don’t you abandon my girls. If something happens to me, Lyz needs someone to take care of her. She’s a bucket of frayed ends on a normal day. Dani does her good. You make sure they don’t lose each other.”

  “You’re not going to d—” The fist tightened. “ALRIGHT!”

  Mopeña’s grip loosened as he sagged back down to the bed. “They’ve both had enough hardships for five lifetimes.” His eyelids sagged shut and Si waited for the telltale sound of the heart monitor failing.

  It didn’t come. He rubbed at his neck feeling the slickness of Willy’s blood and trying not to gag as he swallowed.

  “It took me longer than expected to synthesize a sedative that would not stop his heart again.”

  So that’s what it was. Clearing his throat, he moved to the utility sink on the far wall and sucked down a handful of water before taking a towel to his neck. A quick glance showed Mari and Quince were stable. He wondered if they’d get through this run before every one of them wound up in the infirmary. As it was, Stugg was the only one left.

  The door slid open behind him, announcing Yella’s return. In the crisp white scrubs standard for the ship, Si realized he would have thought her the angel of death upon first waking from cryo if she’d been wearing them then.

  Yella pulled the surgical arm down from the ceiling and moved to the side opposite Si. “Can you do me a favor?”

  “You want me to leave?”

  “Actually, no. I need you to talk about something… anything. I can’t focus when it’s quiet.”

  “Okay, what do you want to know?”

  “We could start with how you put up with Obie for as long as you did before she slapped you in the deep freeze.” She looked up quickly. “No offense, Obie.”

  “None taken, Danielle. I do want to assure you, I did not do this. Unfortunately Elyzabeth disconnected my camera system on that deck, so I cannot tell you who did.”

  “I can’t imagine why she would have done that.” Yella rolled her eyes as she pulled down the laser saw and reopened the coagulating wound.

  “If nothing else, I’d trust that. Obie has always taken responsibility for her actions, misguided as they can be…” He stopped, not wanting to think about the mass murder of his crew. “Oath Breaker's been making her own protocols and disregarding mission directives since day one I'd imagine. Obie, what was the abolitionist stance on metal mites?”

  “Upon first sighting, the affected area is to be locked down and vented immediately. Regardless of crew loss.”

  “We had a bout of metal mites a month in—we suspected sabotage later, at the time we just wanted them gone. Problem was, I was stuck in the area that needed to be vented and Obie, well, why don’t you tell her what you did?”

  “I waited for you to get clear.”

  “Against all regulations and protocols, Obie let me get out alive. And she managed to deal with the mites as well.”

  “Elsewise you wouldn’t be standing here with me now—Hell, none of us would have been on this ship in the first place.” She dug in with the tweezers. “Why are you so attached to him, Obie? Don’t get me wrong, I would have broken protocol to keep you from being vented… but you’re a machine..”

  “There’s the rub. She’s got her organic mainframe—the one with my DNA—as a prototype. Adaptive and apparently emotive in unanticipated ways.”

  Yella’s left brow rose, but she didn’t take her eyes off the wound. “A father-daughter war machine.”

  Osiris laughed uneasily. “Hope you don’t mind a forty-one thousand ton stepdaughter.”

  “That does muck up your otherwise impeccable appeal.” She gave him a quick smile as she dropped the mashed bullet on the tray beside her. “That was quick and… well, not painless, but I just have to seal him up. Then, barring a rogue infection or sepsis… he should be good. Once he wakes up, I’m not going to put him back under until I’m sure the adrenaline’s out of his system. He’s going to hate me for it, but a few days of pain are better than the rest of eternity being dead.”

  “I’m sure he’ll agree.”

  Yella glared at him, her eyes narrowed and head cocked to the side. “What happened to your neck?”

  He thought he’d gotten it all. “Mopeña was rather persuasive about me promising to keep you and Lyz together and make sure you both got out of this alive.”

  “Come on, I’ll clean you up.”

  She led him into the back room where her soiled clothes were piled in the corner and ran a clean towel under the faucet. “Take your shirt off.”

  “Yes ma’am.” he said quietly, unbuttoning the uniform. He hung it on the hook by the door and moved his head where she directed, her hand firmly clasping his chin.

  “This might sound callous, but I don’t know what we’re going to do if he dies.”

  “You and Lyz will survive, and I’ve spent more hours in Obie’s pilot chair than are strictly to regulation.”

  “That’s not what I meant. The morgue won’t hold any more bodies. We’ll have to start jettisoning.”

  “During the war, some ships would seal off cargo bays and adjust environmental to keep the bodies on ic—” he stopped and she looked up at him, pink stained towel in her hand. “What about the cryo capsules? Technically they’re supposed to keep you alive, but they would work on a dead body… they’d just keep them the same, right?”

  “I’ve never looked into cryonics for that. At best I could guess. It should do what you think, but I’d have no idea if it really would.” She looked to the door behind him. “If Willy takes a turn for the worse, at least it’s an option for him. Cryo would stop him from dying… unless it kills him, of course.”

  “We should head down level and see if they can’t work.”

  “Lyz or Gill would be our best hope for getting them to work as actual freezers…. I don’t want to stress Lyz, so we should probably take up Kiori’s cause.”

  “That sounds like a plan. Before we head down to look for him, you should tell Lyz he’s okay. She’ll need to know.”

  “I know. It’s not something I can buzz her with either.” She waggled the pen comm in front of him and then slipped it back in her coat pocket.

  “Captains, there is a malfunction in the engine room. Bilge tank three. Gill alerted me to it moments before it appeared in my diagnostics.”

  “What does that mean?” Yella asked.

  “It could be anything. Come on.” He left his jacket on the peg, grabbed thegun belt, and pulled her through the med bay to the lift, it would be quicker than wending a path to the ladderway. Si knew the most likely cause for a premature report of a malfunction: foul play.

  They pushed out of the lift and into the maze-like engine room, winding through the jungle of pipes and ducts.

  “I have reversed the fill order on the tank, captains, but my reading informs me of debris inside. No visual confirmation at this time.”

  The sound of the hatch bolts opening echoed through the noisy engine room, and they skidded to a stop as they turned the corner.

  Kiori stood in front of
them, the door open to bilge tank three, water trickling out around her feet. She didn’t look to either one of them as she stepped inside. Yella moved more quickly than Osiris did, sliding to a stop in the puddle as he stepped alongside.

  Kiori had sunk to her knees, cradling Gill in her arms as she smoothed his wet hair back. She rocked him silently as they looked on.

  Yella stepped hesitantly through the hatch and laid one hand on Kiori’s shoulder. With a heavy sigh, the weapons officer gently placed Gill's head on the bilge tank’s floor and stood.

  “I’ll take good care of him, Goo,” Yella said as Kiori turned to her, Gills hat in hand.

  Nodding, Kiori stepped silently past him and disappeared into the engine room.

  Dani bent down and pulled the engineer’s eyelids shut. They were already blue. “He didn’t drown,” she said stepping back. “There’s a ragged injection point on his neck. Someone dosed him, and he fought back before the needle was out.”

  Stepping inside, Si’s skin crawled at the thought.

  Dani’s eyes moved from him to the body on the floor. “What the hell is going on?”

  Si’s only available response was, “I wish I knew.”

  SIXTEEN

  Dani strapped Gill’s body to a gurney and waited for Si as he closed the bilge tank’s hatch. Her heart was taking up permanent residence in her stomach—perhaps the gastric acid would eat it away and she wouldn't have to feel anymore. As it was, between the stress of Mopeña and Lyz and now the loss of Gill—after the others—Dani didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to hold it together.

  Rubbing the ache in the back of her neck, she watched Si wipe the damp from his hands. If she was honest, all she wanted to do was go back to her cabin, lose herself in him and hide from the rest of the world. But Lyz deserved better than that. She needed to know Willy was alive, and that Gill….

  Si rubbed a hand down his face. “You know, I thought cryo was a nightmare. I never realized it was a dream and I’d wake up to this.”

  “I don’t suppose it’s occurred to you that someone’s killing the remaining men on my crew—or trying to.” Right now, the only one Dani could consider safe was Osiris—and she didn’t know how long that would last.

  “You don’t think Gill tried to kill Willy and then offed himself?”

  The tone of Si’s voice told Dani, he didn’t believe that theory either. She wondered how he’d feel about her theory. “No, Gill would never commit suicide. He spent too many years keeping Lyz away from razor blades to do that. To be honest, I had someone else in mind.”

  “I know what you’re thinking. Adi would have taken out Kiori first. She’s the biggest threat—we all know that. And Goo said Adi was with her when Mopeña was shot.”

  “And killing Gill was probably the quickest, if not easiest way to put her on high alert. I’m not sure if this is better than when Obie was behind it. At least then I could tell everyone to keep from pissing her off. Now… I don’t know what to think, or who to trust.”

  “Obie’s going to fix her camera systems, right?” He looked up to the ceiling, waiting for the ship’s answer.

  “Affirmative, Captain.”

  He cupped her face in his hands. “And she’s going to stay vigilant.”

  “I know, I just… I can’t handle anyone else dying.” She turned out of his hands and pushed the gurney toward the engine room hatch.

  “Well, let’s try to figure out who killed Gill and we’ll make sure they don’t get another chance.” Si said, falling into step with her and helping to push. “We know someone on board killed him and tried to take out Lyz or Mopeña.”

  “We’re down to us, Kiori, Adi and Stugg. Honestly, with you ruling out Adi, I don’t think any of us would do this….”

  “What about Stugg?”

  “He’s just a kid.” She couldn’t see him doing this. She couldn’t even begin to guess where he would have got whatever was injected into Gill.

  Si gave her a worried look. “A kid who spent a lot of time with the Mandalls.”

  “He’s fifteen.”

  Si didn’t say anything.

  Sighing, she said, “This whole thing is bigger than us, isn’t it? Bigger than this ship, bigger than the Mandalls. Obie, what would you have done, if the Abolitionists hadn’t tried to get rid of Si? If they’d managed to win the war?”

  “I would have done whatever was programmed for me to do. Once primary objective is reached, my systems are primed to receive a new string of commands.”

  “But the war’s over, we lost. You can’t take a new set of mission parameters?”

  “My programming was not designed for failure.”

  “They assumed we’d win… or be destroyed.” There was a grim tenor in his voice as he said the final words. “Is this about your tablet?”

  A cold shiver ran down her spine. “How did you know about that?”

  “Lyz told me.” Osiris watched her and she remembered their conversation.

  “Of course.” She vacillated between the whole truth and a brief summary. She knew they didn’t have time for the whole of it.

  “What I have could start a chain reaction within the Pääom… it wouldn’t be enough on its own, but it’s a loose link in their armor. It would give the abolitionists a toehold… but I don’t know if I have the right to throw the systems back into a war….”

  “Let’s get Gill situated and then we’ll try to sort out the rest of this mess.” He rested his hand on hers as they reached the lift doors. “I don’t know if we have a right to let the Pääom continue on as they are.”

  Osiris hit the lift’s call button and the light flared signaling its presence on their deck.

  The doors didn’t open.

  “Obie? Are your systems malfunctioning?” Osiris hit the button again.

  “No captain.”

  “Then open the damn lift doors.” Dani could see the stress was affecting him as well.

  “I don’t think that’s wise—”

  “Do it anyway.”

  The doors slid open and Dani watched Lyz’s eyes slide from them to Gill’s body. The tech stood in the lift, wearing a tired scowl and a flak-jacket three times the proper size for her. Her hand rose and she leveled the laser pistol at Osiris.

  Dani pulled the gun at her waist without thinking. “Lyz, put it down. He’s not the problem.” Her hands shook as she held the gun, she didn’t know what she’d do if Lyz actually fired.

  “He is. And now, Gill’s dead and Willy’s gone.” Lyz screeched out a sob as her finger shook over the laser’s trigger. “I can make it all stop if I just get rid of him.”

  “NO! Lyz listen to me. Mopeña is alive. He’s in the infirmary recovering. Si didn’t do this. He couldn’t have. I was with him. And the ship doesn’t shoot people.”

  “Of course not, she’s got the other one to do it. Once I’m done with him, I’ll deal with her.”

  “Did you see Adilyn with the gun in her hand?” Dani’s eyes searched for something, anything to distract Lyz with. Obie hadn’t shut the lift doors—Dani guessed because she knew Lyz would get the shot off before they had a chance to fully close.

  “Does it matter? I know what’s going on, Dani. He’s taking back the ship by killing us all, one by one… and he’s brainwashed you into trusting him. We can’t trust him… we can’t trust anyone but ourselves.”

  “Lyz, stop it. Think about what you’re doing. Think about what shooting him means. You’re not a murderer, you never have been. I’ll lock him and Adi in the brig if you want, until we figure this out.”

  Si shifted. “Yella—”

  She held her hand up, wishing she could smack him upside the head for speaking. “Don’t argue.” Her focus snapped back to Lyz. “I will do this for you, we’ll make sure before anyone else has to die.”

  The gun in Lyz’s hand lowered and Dani watched her think it through. “I don’t think we can take that risk. Not now, Dani. Do we even know where this ship is taking us?
Willy told me the ship had taken over navigation. What’s next? It controls our life support. It could kill us all.”

  From behind her, Si said, “I hear suffocation is a painful way to go.”

  “NOT HELPING.” She glared at him and hoped he’d understand as both “shut up” and “I may shoot you myself.” The last thing she needed was to listen to him dig his own grave.

  She turned back to her best friend. “Listen to me, Lyz. If you kill him, the ship has no reason to keep the rest of us alive. Everything she’s done up to this point has been to keep him safe. Every damn thing.

  Si said, “She’s a machine, but she’s selfish and thinks of Si as family. She froze him for this long to make sure he was safe, what makes you think she won’t kill us all in the most painful way stored in her memory banks if she loses him?”

  “She’ll react the same way you are now… except, Mopeña isn’t dead. He had me in a choke hold a few minutes ago.”

  Finally, Si said something that might help. Dani hoped he’d realized the full severity of the situation.

  Lyz eyes narrowed at him. “You’re lying. This is a trick to get me alone so the ship can kill me.”

  Dani held up her hand, trying to draw Lyz’s attention back to her. “It’s not. Look at what I’m wearing. I dug the bullet out and made sure he was stable. If Si wanted Obie to kill you, she could have already. I understand you’re scared, and I know what it feels like to think the man you love is dead. But he’s not, and I’ve convinced Obie that we aren’t a threat. As long as she understands that, we are safe from her. This,” she let her free hand fall to the gurney beside Gill’s form, “And Willy getting shot… that’s someone else. Maybe it’s Adi. If it is, I’ll let you deal with her, but we need to be sure of what we’re doing before we jump to rash conclusions that are going to get us all killed.”

  “Dani, I….” Lyz looked from Gill’s corpse to Si, “This is just like with Vôner. I can’t trust you anymore.”

  Danielle’s heart clenched as Lyz said the name. She saw the laser prime and her lungs refused to exhale. Her finger squeezed the trigger before she could consider the action and the laser in Lyz’s hand flared and shot askew as her bullet tore into her best friend. Lyz staggered backward, falling into the lift wall and the doors closed on her.