I had been so preoccupied fearing microscopic robots I hadn’t given much thought to John’s ship being parked inside the Bell. Reaching it did not make us as safe as I wanted to imagine.
John had powered everything up and the soft vibrations from the ship conveyed we hovered in the bay, but there was a thick door between freedom and us. Outside there would be weapons firing at us, and the tractor beam that already caught us once.
Hiding in a closet wouldn’t help, but it might make me feel better.
Adam said, “The shuttle is still aboard. I might be able to open the bay door from there.”
“Go.”
I watched my husband hurry out. He could suppress his emotions. How convenient it would be if humans could do the same.
“Alex, come over here. I will need your help.”
I doubted my legs would carry me, but the mere idea of John needing my assistance cheered me up. I made it to the chair Adam just left.
“What do you want me to do?”
He took the time to glance over at me and wink. “Nothing right now, but that will change quickly.”
The large door up ahead slid open a little, stopped, closed to a slit, and opened again.
Not enough to let us through.
John muttered, “Great. I’ve always wanted to be crushed to death.”
“Right. You’re not afraid of anything.”
“Of course I am. Everyone is afraid of something. I just try not to let it get the upper hand.”
I groaned, “I’m so bad at that.”
He flashed a smile. “That’s not a bad thing, Hon. It means you’ve had a good life where you haven’t had to fight for survival.”
It was true. Life on Earth had been pretty cushy, and after that either he or Adam had taken care of me. I had been in trouble a few times, but one of them always showed up to save me.
I glanced up at the monitors. The door was open, but still not enough for us to squeeze through. I imagined Adam’s fingers racing over the shuttle controls, trying to persuade the Bell’s computer letting us out would be the prudent thing to do.
The doors opened a little more, paused, and went all the way. John slammed a control and we darted forward. In my imagination, the bay doors closed again and metal ground against metal, but it probably wasn’t real.
Our ship trembled as we left the artificial gravity of the Bell and our computer compensated with our own.
It was a matter of seconds before the other ship fired. I could see the beam of deadly energy on the monitors, but it went far away from us.
“Anya is helping us.” I couldn’t explain how I knew, I just knew.
John pressed his lips together. “I hope the price won’t be too high.”
If they figured it out they would reprogram her. Or delete her.
This wasn’t the right time to think about it.
A blast hit us, rocking the ship. How far did we have to be from the Bell before entering hyperspace?
“How are the shields doing?”
Shields, shields… I had spent so much time here with him and I didn’t remember a thing. Stress did not improve my brain functions.
My gaze found a familiar display. “Eighty-nine percent.”
“Not bad. Keep an eye on that.”
He banked the ship so hard I almost fell out of the chair before the computer compensated. We would have some cleaning to do when this was over.
Not a big problem. We had to survive in order to worry about things falling.
Adam finally returned and I was more than happy to let him have the seat. Good thing he was on our side. With him on the Bell no amount of tampering by Anya or anyone else could have prevented a direct hit.
The monitors showed the tractor beam searching for us. If they grabbed us they could hold us still and shoot. Would be much easier than trying to hit a moving target.
John said, “Just a little further.”
Seconds later, we were in hyperspace. Not safe, but safer.
“They can still track us.” Adam clearly said that for my benefit. “We need to seek out some well traveled trade routes. The more ships we meet, the harder it will be to follow us.”
John explained, clearly also for me, “If we encounter other ships, the computer has the ability to copy their signature and make a false track. We only need to keep them off our trail for twenty-four hours.”
In my imagination, the Bell would appear before us, gigantic and invincible, the moment we dropped back into normal space.
Adam turned to me. “I’ll program the internal sensors to look for nanites, okay?”
All the sensors in the world wouldn’t convince me we were safe from the crawlies, but I nodded anyway.
“What are we going to do?”
If the Confederacy was really overrun and they decided they wanted us, I saw no way to survive. They were everywhere and they would find us.
Adam reached out to caress my cheek. “I don’t know. Why don’t the two of you go get some rest. We’ll figure it out when we have some distance between us and them.”
It was a sound idea, I had been exhausted before our great escape, but I doubted I’d be able to sleep.
Ever.
John ran a hand over his face. “Okay. I think I could sleep standing up. Let’s go to the lounge.”
It was an inviting room, but for all I knew it could be swarming with wicked little creatures.
I shook my head.
Adam said, “Alex, honey, there aren’t any nanites in the lounge. If you don’t believe me, bring your IR glasses and see for yourself.”
“How do you know? You haven’t been there.”
John reached out his hand. “Come Hon, there’s only one way to find out. Adam has a lot to do and he can keep us safe much better than I can. He can do it even better if we’re not distracting him.”
I met his eyes and saw fatigue. He looked even more tired than I was. He probably worried for Anya too, more than I did.
“Alright.”
I followed him, but stopped in the door to the lounge and put on the IR glasses. I couldn’t see any tiny enemies, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
John was already in the room. He turned back, grabbed my hand, and pulled me in.
“This is what’s going to happen. We’re going to have a drink, because this turned out to be one hell of a day. After that we’re going to sleep, and nothing is going to eat you or change you, because Adam and the computer are on guard.”
“But…”
“No. No but, no thinking, no planning, and no worrying. All that can wait until tomorrow. Sit down.”
The sofa didn’t look about to eat me, but I hadn’t thought my bed would either.
“You can’t stand there all night. Sit down.”
I was pretty sure both Adam and John loved me. If they both claimed it was safe, I should believe them.
Sitting down felt good.
John handed me a glass with golden liquid and sank down next to me.
“What a fucked up day.”
He rarely cursed when sober.
I kicked my shoes off and pulled my feet up in the sofa. “I agree.”
John tilted his head. “He changed the course.”
“Do you think they found us?”
“I hope not. I don’t think either of us can deal with anything more right now. Hang on.”
He moved over to the edge of the sofa, touched something on the side, and made the seat recline. After all this time on the ship, I had no idea it did that.
John patted his stomach. “I can be your pillow.”
Good thinking. I wouldn’t be able to sleep all by myself and he probably wanted company too, but our old way of curling up in each other’s arms wouldn’t be appropriate. I rested my head on him and he brushed his fingers over my hair.
It was a matter of seconds before I slept.
Chapter Nineteen
“Alex, wake up.”
I opened my eyes to Adam w
hispering my name and caressing my cheek. He gestured to me to be quiet and murmured, “Let him sleep.”
He led the way to the corridor and the few steps to the bridge. I couldn’t stifle a yawn, which made him smile.
“You’ve slept for almost eleven hours. I’ll make you some coffee.”
My head still felt foggy, so I plopped down on a chair and waited for him to return. Adam looked tall, strong, and handsome like always, and when watching him it was difficult to believe the previous day happened.
He crouched next to me and handed me a mug. The dark brew smelled heavenly.
“Thank you. What’s up?”
“I missed you, figured it would be okay to wake you by now.” He sounded sincere and his words made me smile.
“You were right. I missed you too. Where are we?”
“Hiding. We’ve been running at full speed for so long I needed to give the engines a break. I don’t think they’re still on our tail.”
That, of course, didn’t mean we were safe.
I put the mug to the side and bent over to wrap my arms around him. He rubbed my back and kissed my cheek, but let me go all too quickly.
“I need to keep an eye on everything.”
I followed him, but stayed away from the consoles. If someone were to pour liquid into the ship’s systems, it wouldn’t be me.
He looked everything over and spun the chair back to face me. “Put that down for a minute and come here. Please.”
The days after his returning to himself had offered few opportunities for tenderness and after all this new trauma I was more than happy to sit on his lap. He wrapped an arm around my waist and brushed a lock of hair off my face.
“How are you holding up?”
“I… I think…”
He waited, patient as always, and I drew a deep breath. “If I think about it, my head might explode. That, I mean the Bell, was the safe and secure place that would always be there.”
And now it was anything but safe. The world had changed and I needed to accept it.
“What do you want to do?”
Who? Me?
“I don’t know. You?”
His lips sought mine and he murmured, “I don’t know. We could wake John up to watch the ship and sneak away. I want to take your clothes off and kiss my way down your body.”
It wasn’t the type of thing I had in mind, but a much better idea than anything I could think of.
“For an android, you sure have a one track mind.”
“Of course. A part of me always thinks of you.”
He probably said that just to cheer me up. Still, he sounded serious.
He kissed me for real, but pulled away just as I was getting into it. “I know what we should do, but it’s not what I want to do, and it might be beyond the three of us.”
I sighed. “You think we should reclaim the Bell, find a way to get rid of the nanites and other threats, turn the crew back to normal, and go after whoever is responsible for all this so we can return the Confederacy to its former stability and glory.”
John entered in the beginning of my summary, scratching his chin. “Damn this itches.” His stubble was turning into a beard.
He grabbed my cup and took a couple of deep gulps. “That is a horrible plan.”
Adam gave a slight shrug. “It’s not what I want to do. It’s what we should do. There’s a difference.”
I said, “You always do what’s right.”
“Not since I died.”
Good point. The experience changed him in many ways.
John put my mug down. “It is a horrible plan but we might not have a choice. If we don’t try to settle this, where will we go? The Confederacy is everywhere.”
Another good point. We weren’t exactly self-sustaining and John and I needed food. We could find a place to hide out for a while, but we wouldn’t be able to stay hidden forever.
John nodded towards the consoles. “How are we doing?”
“We’re still free, so well for the circumstances.”
Adam’s serious voice emphasized the grave situation.
He fell silent and when no one else spoke, he said, “I brought something from the Bell. A surveillance video. It’s from the day I died.”
I already knew I didn’t want to see it. It was a moot point. A hologram showed a miniature version of engineering and I could just as well watch it.
He paused the recording and pointed. “See these thick cables? They come in from the Tokamak.”
I had done my best to forget the black hole monster machine that resided in the bowels of the Bell. This ship probably had one too, but I didn’t want to know.
“Watch Jia’Lyn.”
My old friend went over to one of the engines, clearly inspecting the feed from the Tokamak. Nothing strange about that. She had been the head of engineering and ran a clean house.
The recorded miniature version of Jia’Lyn proceeded to the other side of the room, clearly inspecting the cables there too. Then, she headed for the middle of the room, stumbled, and fell as the ship shook.
Smoke rose from the engine compartment and the scene changed to one of chaos and destruction. Adam paused the recording at a spot where no burning people were in sight. Thankfully.
“Look at the time. The explosions in the engine room took place several seconds before the Grendl fired.”
“Jia’Lyn sabotaged the ship.”
He nodded and restarted the recording, but slowed the speed and zoomed in on our friend. She was fast, but not fast enough to fool an android eye. When Adam pointed it out, it was impossible not to see her attach small disks to the power couplings on each side.
One of my best friends started the chain of events that led to Adam’s death and all the following misery.
“Do you think she did it willingly?”
“No. She was probably already under their control.”
Shouldn’t we have noticed? Thinking back didn’t do much to bring clarity to the mystery, not until I realized we didn’t meet her after returning to the ship.
“We were on shore leave and it seems like all hell broke lose while we were away. Then we returned to the Bell, went to the Captain’s office, and everything happened.” I talked more to myself than to the others.
Adam nodded. “We never met her.”
John said, “Maybe they promised her the ship. Or promised everyone on the ship would be fine if the Bell surrendered. There are many possible explanations.”
I slipped off Adam’s lap onto my feet, snatched my mug from John, and went to get more coffee.
Coffee was good. Coffee was my friend.
“I have a suggestion.” Deeming from the looks on their faces, they didn’t expect me to say that.
“What is it, Hon?” John looked honestly curious.
“Let’s go find Blake and Ima. If they are still unchanged we’ll have a better chance of succeeding with whatever plan you two come up with. Five is better than three. If they’re altered, maybe we should go back to our original idea of seeing what life outside Confederacy space might be like.”
“I know where they are. Or, at least where they were sent when they left the Bell.”
John and I stared at Adam and he flashed a smile. “I had some time to spend with the computer when you two visited Jia’Lyn.”
Chapter Twenty
By the time we orbited a large and sand-colored planet, I’d had time to second-guess my suggestion.
For all I knew, the entire planet could be filled with remote-controlled copies of people. Adam said it was a prison world so it might not be a priority for the power-hungry terrorists behind all our problems, but on the other side of the coin, people had to be pretty bad to be shipped off to a separate planet.
My thoughts led me around and around, from one disastrous scenario to another.
Adam’s hands on my shoulders helped me return to reality. “You don’t have to go down there. Maybe you should stay here and watch the ship.”
/> “Because I’m so good at that. If it needed watching, you or John would do it.”
“I just don’t want to pull you into another dangerous situation.”
I managed a feasible resemblance of a smile. “I think that ship has sailed.”
He cupped my face in his hands. “I’m sorry. We can still leave.”
“No we can’t. Let’s do this.”
His lips sought mine and I clung to him. For all I knew, it could be our last kiss.
“I love you. I love you so very much.” I sounded pathetic, but it was okay. He wouldn’t mind.
“I love you too, you know that. We have been through a lot together, and we’ll handle this as well.” He sounded confident.
“I guess we should go to the bridge.”
He nodded and we walked through the ship hand in hand. John didn’t even glance back when we entered; he was arguing with someone on the radio.
“Yes, a cat. What do you mean what kind of cat? I didn’t say I’m looking for a cat, I’m looking for a person who resembles a cat.”
The anonymous voice answered, “I’m not authorized to divulge information about the prisoners.”
Jia’Lyn had made it sound like a new assignment. Sending the captain and chief medical officer to a prison planet as inmates was much worse.
Adam leaned over the console and pressed a button. “You are speaking with a Confederacy Commander. Allow access to your computer and I will transfer my command codes. I am here with orders to retrieve Blake and Ima Jones, and I suggest you comply.”
His tone of voice made me feel I should salute him. Another part of me claimed my husband was the boss of the universe and everything, and it was hot.
His own codes were probably canceled since he was technically dead, but knowing him, he had something up his sleeve. That wasn’t surprising, but the fact that he lied and was good at it made me feel I needed to sit down. He had always been the worst liar I ever met. Where and how had he picked up these new skills, and had he changed in more ways?
Maybe Mr. Honest-and-Trustworthy wasn’t all that honest and trustworthy anymore?
The calmer part of my mind claimed the situation was close enough to the truth for him to deal with it in a convincing manner. And, even if he had learned to lie, I had no reasons to think he wasn’t truthful about everything else.
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