Games of Command

by Linnea Sinclair

  “Do I get to choose whose cabin I hide out in?” he asked, flashing a wicked grin at Eden.

  Eden had mentioned to Sass that there was “a slight attraction” between Serafino and herself. Now Sass wondered if the good doctor wasn’t underestimating things. Well, if he wanted to be near Eden, so be it. As long as Eden had no problem with it. At least Sass knew that someone would be able to keep the rather rambunctious mercenary in line.

  She decided, however, not to reward him with that information yet and instead spent the next fifteen minutes going over just how they were going to engineer his escape from Panperra and his return to the Vax. And what roles Gund’jalar and the rest of the assortment of rim runners would play, if what Serafino prophesied came true.

  When she was sure Serafino understood, she nodded to Eden. “We’ll leave now, just in case there’s a certain problem up front.” She pulled her extra service pistol from under her jacket and held it out to Serafino. “I hope to hell you don’t need this.”

  He took it and tucked it in the back of his pants. Then he touched her arm lightly as she walked by. “It’s good to work with you, Lady Sass. Master Gund’jalar always had high praise for you.”

  “A lot of what I know, I owe to him,” she replied. “Watch your back, ’Fino.”

  Sass didn’t miss Eden’s questioning look as they exited Cal’s office. She hadn’t told her CMO she intended to arm the mercenary captain. Her decision to do so violated at least a half dozen Alliance regs and probably twice as many Triad ones. Eden, being Eden, would no doubt quote a few of those, just to make sure Sass was really certain that what she wanted to do was arm a man labeled—and for good cause—a dangerous and volatile mercenary.

  It was. Those were Alliance regs. And she was starting to suspect that the alliance between the U-Cees and the Triad no longer existed.

  She just wished she knew where the Tin Soldier stood in the midst of the mess.

  CAPTAIN SEBASTIAN’S CABIN

  Sniff. Sniff.

  Greeting! Friend.

  Friend. Greeting!

  Food?

  Food!

  The two furzels touched noses one more time before Reilly followed Tank into Sass’s small kitchen. Tank sat and looked up at the countertop. Reilly leaped gracefully, landing next to a shallow bowl of cream.

  Tank scrunched his pudgy body against the floor and pushed with all his might, managing only to scramble against the cabinet doors before falling.

  Shtift-a! he swore.

  Reilly looked down at the pudgy fidget, then indicated with a lift of his nose the other side of the counter and two tall stools. Obediently, Tank trotted around and, paw over paw, grunting audibly, managed to pull himself up to counter level. Reilly graciously left a bit of cream for his friend.

  Food!

  Food!

  Sweet. Cool.

  Cool. Sweet.

  A noise at the cabin door drew their attention.

  Sass. Friend. Love, said Tank. MommyMommy!

  Friend. Sass, agreed Reilly.

  “Well, aren’t you two a sight!” Sass pulled off her uniform jacket and threw it carelessly onto the couch. The antics of the furzels were a pleasant diversion after the issues raised in her talk with Serafino. She pushed her worries aside for the moment. “Out of cream, hmmm?”

  Two pairs of golden eyes followed her movement to the small fridge. Two noses twitched at the buttery smell as more cream was poured.

  Sass patted both heads affectionately as pink tongues flicked small droplets of cream over the countertop. “Have to talk to Eden about how you get in here, Reilly.” She peered at the air vents in the wall. They seemed intact. “May have to comm link you both and let the computer track you one of these days,” she continued, as she entered her bedroom. She dragged a medium-size duffel bag from the closet, then stuffed the usual items inside: a requisite change of uniform plus enough clothes for a two-night stay on Panperra—which, being primarily a commercial civilian station with the Triad’s military presence confined to three small docks, promised to be a bit more fun once they had Serafino safely settled. A Legends Fair was scheduled on Panperra for the next two days.

  Conveniently enough, the fair’s usual pandemonium and plethora of people in costume would also provide the cover to get Serafino off station and back on the Vax.

  Almost as an afterthought, she tucked the small datadrive that contained Kel-Paten’s decoded files in a hidden pocket of the duffel. There was information she wanted to review; information Gund’jalar would require if all Serafino foresaw came about.

  She heard the thud of Tank jumping off the stool and the muted thumpety-thump of his overlarge paws as he ran into her bedroom. He pushed his wet nose against her hand and then dug under her clothes in the duffel.

  “It’s just for a couple of nights,” Sass told him, guessing at the meaning behind his burrowing. “Eden and I will be back before you know we’re gone.”

  No Mommy leave! No Mommy leave! Tank go with! Tank go with!

  Friend. Reilly sat on his haunches and stared at Tank. The little fidget frantically rooted through the clothes.

  Friend!

  Tank stopped, ears perked high.

  Friend. Safe. Safe. All go. All go with. Plan. Go with. Secret.

  “Murrupf?” said Tank.

  “Murrupf,” said Reilly.

  “Good boys.” MommySass ruffled Tank’s fur. “Now go play! Mommy has work to do before she leaves.”

  Tumbling over each other, the furzels raced from the room.

  CAPTAIN SEBASTIAN’S OFFICE

  Sass logged off her office comp as her door chimed. She glanced at the overhead readout.

  Kel-Paten.

  “Damn,” she said softly, standing and touching the mag-seal on her briefcase. Then: “Enter.”

  The door slid open. “When were we denied permission to dock?” Kel-Paten leaned his gloved hands against the back of one of her two office chairs.

  “About an hour ago,” she lied.

  “Why wasn’t I informed?”

  She met his gaze levelly. “I left that information on your office comp board.”

  “You could have reached me in my quarters.”

  She knew that. That’s why she left the message where she did, knowing it would get buried under the usual deluge of information every ship’s officer received upon arriving on station.

  “It’s not a critical issue. I’ve allocated the Definator to transport Serafino in and alerted Kel-Farquin as well.” She turned away from him and straightened a stack of data files on her desk, hoping he’d interpret her body language: I’m busy. Leave. She was increasingly uncomfortable around him. Now that Serafino had basically concurred with Eden’s analysis, she couldn’t stop thinking about his log entries. She couldn’t stop thinking that, to him, she was his green-eyed vixen. She wasn’t remotely a vixen and had never considered herself more than passably attractive. To be the subject of such undeserved passion…

  It almost made her more nervous than when she thought he was the enemy.

  “The command shuttle is the Galaxus.” His voice interrupted her thoughts.

  “I thought you might be using her,” she offered, but that wasn’t the real reason. Given Serafino’s warnings, she thought it best not to advertise the status of those on board by using the larger craft.

  “I will. We will,” he corrected. “I’ll accompany you to Panperra.”

  She’d figured that was unavoidable. Though she had hopes. She picked up her briefcase, declined his offer to carry it for her, and looked squarely at him. “If you do, it’ll be on the Definator. I’ve already loaded—”

  “I’ll order it unloaded.” He pulled on her briefcase as she tried to step past him. “I see you’ve put in for a stay-over on station.”

  “My schedule’s clear—”

  “The Triad maintains an excellent officers’ club there.” He looked down at her. She tried to tug the briefcase out of his grasp. “I’ll arrange a dinne
r meeting with some of Kel-Farquin’s key staff.”

  “Ede—Dr. Fynn and I had plans.” She stubbornly hung on to her briefcase as they moved toward the door.

  “After dinner we can take a walk through the fair compound.”

  We will do nothing of the kind! Sass finally relinquished her efforts to regain her briefcase. All she needed was Kel-Paten traipsing alongside while she and Eden maneuvered Serafino back to the Vax. She’d have to think of some kind of diversion for him.

  Actually, Eden had thought of one earlier. It would also, she knew, keep him from uncovering their deception. Though it would take her out of the action for a while.

  Green-eyed vixen, indeed.

  She glanced up at him as they entered the lift and tried to put together the passion in the logs she’d read with this always-in-control Tin Soldier next to her. It didn’t make sense.

  Until he glanced down at her in return.

  People often compared his pale blue eyes to ice, but they were wrong. It wasn’t the cold blue-white of ice they resembled but the white-hot blue of the center of a flame.

  She’d seen this look from him before, but this time—she wasn’t sure why—it seared her, touched her, reached something deep inside her with an unexpected heat.

  For a brief nanosecond, something inside her almost melted. That scared her and made her realize that there was no way, seeing the intensity reflected there, that she was going to be able to avoid him on Panperra. And his presence would create a big problem in getting Serafino safely off station.

  She had no choice. She trusted Eden; they’d worked far more dangerous situations than this, and Serafino was nothing if not a master at getting out of tight spots. She’d just have to let Eden and Serafino hook up with Gund’jalar’s people on their own. It was their only chance of success.

  “Dinner sounds wonderful.” Sass tried to put the right combination of enthusiasm and seductive suggestion in her voice and was surprised to find it wasn’t as difficult as she would have thought. A little fun and games, a little flirtation…she could handle that. “Actually, Eden has plans to see someone special at the fair. I’d have only been a tagalong.” She gave him a small, confidential smile. “Are you sure you wouldn’t mind my tagging along with you?”

  He almost dropped her briefcase. “I think it would be very nice.”

  He’d moved closer to her. She turned her face up toward his. In the back of her mind she monitored the muted ping as each deck passed by. She waited until the lift was just a few pings from her destination before she deliberately stepped up to him, one hand resting lightly on her briefcase, which he clutched against his chest.

  “I think that would be very nice too,” she whispered. Parting her lips slightly, she leaned toward him, her eyes half closed.

  “Tasha.” He breathed her name and brought his head down to close the few inches that separated them. She sucked in a breath, arching, tilting her mouth closer to his. And the lift pinged, twice this time, as the doors slid noisily open.

  She snatched her briefcase out of his hands and sprinted through the doors, pivoting after only a few steps and grinning at him.

  “Shuttle Bay Three. Half hour, Kel-Paten,” she called, and touched her fingers to her temple in a mock salute.

  He stood in the middle of the lift, his mouth half open in surprise, his arms raised as if holding on to a briefcase—or a woman—that was no longer there.

  He was still standing that way when the doors closed in front of him.

  Sass trotted the short distance down the corridor to sick bay, laughing softly to herself and at herself. Who would have thought it would have been so much fun to tease Branden Kel-Paten?

  “You look like the fidget who caught the slitherskimp,” Eden said as Sass entered her office. “What now?”

  “A slight change of plans once we get on station. You have Serafino’s datalyzer for me?”

  “Everything he could remember. He said to tell you there are still gaps. I’m telling you as his doctor that until that thing’s removed, there always will be.”

  “Understandable.” Sass accepted the handheld and tucked it in her briefcase. Then she pulled out a thin datadisk and handed it to Eden. “Here’s Panperra’s layout. Serafino shouldn’t need more than five minutes to memorize it. Meet us in Shuttle Bay Three in twenty-five minutes.”

  “Us?” Eden questioned.

  Sass sighed. “You were right. I am the issue here, and the issue’s going to have to keep Admiral Kel-Paten busy while you get Serafino back to the ship.”

  “Busy?”

  “Don’t look at me like that, Eden. This is duty. Lives are at stake.”

  Eden’s grin was decidedly wicked. “You mean you’re going to—”

  “Have dinner with him. Engage in some flirtatious conversation. Give you time to find Angel and Suki.” Sass hadn’t seen Aliya “Angel-Face” Kel-Moro since Angel’s pair-bonding ceremony with Suki years before. An Alliance captain couldn’t risk being seen with one of Gund’jalar’s mercenaries. It was one of the friendships she missed. “They’ll make sure Serafino’s on the right med-shuttle, purportedly going to Riln Marin. Our shuttle. Coming back here.”

  “And you’ll be?”

  “Keeping the Tin Soldier as far away from our shuttle bays as I can until the Vax heads out again.”

  And oddly, that assignment wasn’t as unpalatable as she once would have thought.

  SHUTTLE BAY 3

  Shuttle Bay 3—a cavernous, well-lighted bay in the mid-aft portside section of the Vax—housed two of the huntership’s five shuttles: the larger Galaxus and the smaller Definator. Both were elliptical in shape, their silver hull plating emblazoned with the Vax’s signature dragon-and-lightning-bolt symbol. When Sass arrived, cargo ’droids were transferring luggage from the smaller shuttle to the larger.

  Admiral’s orders.

  She sighed and found the lanky young ensign in charge of the transfer. “She’s fully fueled?” She laid her hand against the shuttle’s fuselage.

  The ensign saluted smartly. “Yes, ma’am! I double-checked myself. She was last in for maintenance ten days ago. Everything’s optimal.”

  For whom? she wondered briefly. Was there some reason Kel-Paten insisted on using the Galaxus other than that she was the traditional command shuttle? Paranoia, she chastised herself. She was getting like the Tin Soldier.

  She let the ensign get back to his duties with a word of thanks. He turned back to an antigrav flat as it floated the luggage toward the Galaxus’s under-belly. A Strata-class shuttle, the Galaxus could comfortably seat up to ten people, with a commensurate storage area aft. She was similar in design to a medium-size luxury transport, with a large cockpit area forward of the main cabin. Like a luxury transport, she had a small galley and full sanifac. Unlike a luxury transport, she also had a fully stocked battle-gear locker, a full weapons array, and an enhanced shield-and-scanner system.

  Sass was into her preflight check when the sound of the corridor doors opening alerted her to the arrival of Eden, Serafino, and a small security contingent, headed by the muscular Garrick.

  “Everything secure as per your orders,” Garrick told her as Eden and Serafino climbed the short flight of steps to the shuttle’s interior.

  “Excellent, Lieutenant.” That meant the pistol she gave Serafino was still in his possession and that the sonicuffs that bound his hands in front weren’t locked. Garrick knew that when she asked for the unusual, there was always a damned good reason. As her crew on the Regalia used to say, there were rules and then there were Captain Sebastian’s rules. And the latter usually won out.

  Sass had the preflight completed, luggage loaded, her passengers seated comfortably, and herself ensconced in the pilot’s seat when Kel-Paten arrived, promptly on time. She heard his heavy footsteps on the stairs and then his muted acknowledgment to Eden. When she heard nothing more, she looked away from the datascreen to find him standing in the cockpit’s wide hatchway, a questioning expre
ssion on his face.

  She could guess at part of it: she was in the pilot’s seat, his normal role.

  The other part was no doubt their aborted flirtation in the lift. For a moment she felt guilty, remnants of those damned logs surfacing in her mind. But she wasn’t, she assured herself, trying to hurt him. She was simply becoming a little more friendly. Nothing wrong with that. Especially since he cared about her. That had to mean he couldn’t be part of that Faction Serafino had warned about. It might not make him any less a pain in the ass, but at least he was a pain in the ass who was on their side. She offered him a welcoming smile.

  “Ready when you are, Admiral,” she said, and turned away to check the latch on her safety straps.

  “Sebastian.” He slid into the copilot’s seat, locked his own straps, and activated the instruments without further comment.

  “Bridge, this is Captain Sebastian. Requesting departure clearance, Shuttle Bay Three.”

  “Clearance granted, Captain.” Timmer Kel-Faray’s voice sounded through the cockpit’s overhead speaker. “Initiate departure sequence.”

  “Initiating.” Her mind clicked into its piloting mode as her fingers tapped the codes. Inside the bay, a small siren wailed. The lights over the corridor doors went from green to cautionary yellow. The ship’s computers scanned for life forms and, finding none, the corridor door lights changed to red and the door sealed.

  Directly in front of the Galaxus, a ring of red lights delineated the outer-bay doors. They flashed and departure systems confirmed their imminent opening.

  Sass activated the shuttle’s antigrav thrusters just as the air was sucked from the bay.

  The wide doors disappeared into the wall, revealing the immense black starfield beyond. Panperra Station wasn’t visible; the shuttle would have to clear the huntership first, then drop below her before the multilevel artificial world was visible.

  “Main thrusters online,” Sass said.

  “Confirmed,” Kel-Paten replied. “Full power in ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven.”

  She and the admiral worked in synchronization as the shuttle glided through the bay doors, then made a sharp bank to starboard.