by M. D. Cooper
“What the—?” Tom stepped into the room, a half-eaten sandwich in hand. “You can’t be in here, Anna. It’s restricted.”
Anna gave Tom a sultry smile. “It wasn’t locked, and I was looking for you.”
“Me?” Tom asked, his brow lowering.
“Yeah,” Anna purred as she stepped toward Tom. “We’ve been having such nice chats up in the commissary, I wanted to see what else you had to offer.”
Verisa, your tech better be worth this, you prissy bitch.
THE ADMIRAL
STELLAR DATE: 01.19.8512 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Farsa Station
REGION: Orbiting Persia, Midditerra System
Mal’s shuttle docked at the edge of Farsa Station, and the trio took a maglev the three kilometers to the station’s hub. From there, they took a lift to the top of the spire where Admiral Lara maintained her offices.
Despite the fact that Lara purported to be an admiral of sorts, there was little in the way of a military feel to the station. Few people were in uniform, and of those who were, there were two distinct flavors. One group wore a variety of uniforms that all bore the ‘F’ of Farsa Station—these appeared to be workers and administrators.
The others wore a light grey uniform with a circle and a line through the middle. Juasa took that to mean ‘Midditerra’ and assumed they were either station security or the military.
Both groups were vastly outnumbered by the throngs of civilians.
Once they reached the top of the spire, there were no more civilians in evidence, and just a few of the F-bearing people. There were, however, a slew of the military types in the light grey uniforms.
Korin had grown tense as they rode the lift, and now he seemed to be fully on guard as they walked through a wide foyer toward a long hall.
“Remember,” Mal said softly. “Speak only when spoken to, give nothing away. She’s going to try to learn what it is that we have; that is the Havermere, and nothing more. Am I clear?”
Juasa nodded, and Mal smiled. “Look at that, paying attention. I like it.”
Mal led them past a pair of guards and through a security arch that approved their presence without issue. From there, they walked down a long passage to a pair of doors that swung open silently to reveal a large, entirely unfurnished room. The space was easily a hundred meters across, and the far wall was a window that granted a spectacular view of space and the world of Persia below.
In the center of the room stood a tall woman surrounded by floating holodisplays. Her stance was wide, and arms akimbo as she glared at the data coursing before her eyes.
“Lara,” Mal called out as she approached. “So good to see you. How are things up here on Farsa?”
Korin placed a hand on Juasa’s shoulder, and they stopped, letting Mal continue forward.
Lara waved her hand, and the holodisplays disappeared. “Malorie, thanks for coming up on such short notice. Things are well, of course. Midditerra flourishes, as it always has under my care.”
Juasa noted that Mal had been right about Lara’s attire. The woman wore the same light grey uniform as the other soldiers they had passed, though hers had considerably more medals adorning her chest.
Her voice was sharp and crisp; each word seemed to be cut off a bit too soon, as though she was trying to save the extra bits for later.
“Of course,” Mal replied. “I understand you wished to talk about our latest acquisition. Are you interested in purchasing the Havermere for your fleets?”
Lara laughed. “Perhaps, perhaps. Of course, there’s the matter of the courier from Bollam’s World, a representative of a company named KiStar that claims the ship is theirs.”
“What ship?” Mal laughed. “There’s no ship they can find in this system that matches the one they seek.”
“Of course,” Lara said, her tone even. “You have it tucked away in Rockhall, your hollowed out asteroid refit and repair station. The Havermere is not a small ship; I have the scan logs of it entering the system.”
“Which will never see the light of day,” Mal replied. “Per our standard arrangement, you provide the doctored logs showing that the ship never entered Midditerra, and all is well. It’s what we pay you a cut of all our hauls for.”
Lara nodded and ran a finger along her jaw. “That is true. Of course, it assumes you’re not hiding things from me.”
“Hiding what?” Mal asked with a frown. “You saw the ship come in. You know what it is, what it’s worth. You have right of first refusal at a discounted rate, just like always.”
“I’m not talking about the ship,” Lara said coolly. “There’s talk of a Streamer.”
Mal nodded, a scowl creasing her features. “Yeah, we have reason to believe the Havermere was working on a Streamer ship. But it got away, and all we got was the repair vessel. Still it’s a good haul—but sucks that my husband jumped the gun and screwed it up.”
“And who did you bring along?” Lara asked, turning to Juasa.
“Her name is Juasa,” Mal said. “She was Crew Chief on the Havermere; she was the one working with the Streamer woman to get their ship FTL-capable.”
Lara approached Juasa, her boot heels snapping against the gleaming floor. “You met this woman?”
Juasa nodded. “I did, she was aboard the Havermere for five days.”
“And what did she do for those days?”
“Honestly?” Juasa asked. “She mostly fucked the captain.”
“And how did she make it to her ship?” Lara asked.
“She went over there with the repair crew. Captain went with her. A few hours later, they made an FTL jump.”
One of Admiral Lara’s eyebrows rose, and she folded her arms. “A few hours to get a ship FTL capable? What’s your girl trying to sell here, Malorie?”
“It’s what Jace said as well,” Malorie replied. “You can ask him yourself when he gets back.”
“I think I’ll do that,” Lara said. “Where is Jace now, anyway? He usually sticks around longer after coming back from one of his little trips.”
“He was pissed that he lost the Streamer ship. He’s off chasing leads,” Mal said with a shrug. “Honestly, I think it’s a long shot, but I’m cautiously optimistic.”
Lara nodded slowly. “What about you, Crew Chief? What do you think his odds are?”
Juasa shrugged. “That ship could be anywhere within a hundred light years of Bollam’s World by now. It could even be in the AST. I think Jace would have to be the luckiest man alive to find it.”
“I imagine he would be,” Lara said with a nod before turning back to Mal. “If he finds it, I want my cut, even if he doesn’t bring it through Midditerra. I’m hiding your shit from KiStar and Bollam’s World, but don’t think you can hide the Streamer vessel from me. If the Blackadder picks up something like that ship, you know tongues will wag.”
“Seriously, Lara, we have a good thing going here. I’m not going to screw it up by getting greedy,” Mal paused and winked. “Well, more greedy.”
“Good, I’d call you into question if you pretended at total honesty,” Lara said, cracking her first smile of the meeting.
“Are we finished here?” Mal asked.
“Yeah, I just wanted to look into your eyes and meet your new girl toy here.”
“You know I don’t do girls,” Mal replied with a smile. “She gives great massages, though. Would you like one?”
Lara snorted. “Get out of here, Mal, before I make you give me a massage.”
“Don’t think you can turn me to the other team,” Mal winked as she turned and walked out of the room.
“Maybe one of these days I’ll get that husband of yours to take off your leash, then we’ll see about that. I bet you’d be quite the ride, whether you liked it or not,” Lara called out as she summoned her holodisplays once more. “Tell your stationmaster that I’ll send a team to inspect the Havermere tomorrow. I may just want to add it as a support ship to one of my fleets.”
Mal’s expression darkened as she called out, “I’ll let him know immediately.” She didn’t slow as she walked past Juasa and Korin. “Come.”
No one spoke until they were back in the lift, and then Mal slammed a golden fist into the wall. “Stars, I hate that bitch. I wish she’d burn up in the flames of a thousand stars. No, I wish that she’d spend an eternity at the edge of a black hole, being ripped apart atom by atom until there was nothing left.”
Korin caught Juasa’s eye and gave a slight shake of his head. Juasa didn’t need the hint. The less of Mal’s attention she attracted at the moment, the better.
Unfortunately, it didn’t help.
Mal spun on Juasa and held a finger to her nose. “You better hope that Verisa sings soon, or I’ll send you up to Lara, and let her take her frustrations out on you, then send you back to the fields. You’ll die out there, a blackened husk picked clean by the crows!”
Juasa took a step back and swallowed. She’d seen Malorie angry over the past few weeks, but nothing like this.
She nodded quickly and muttered, “I’m sure she will.”
Malorie shook her head and turned away, fingering the choker around her neck.
It occurred to Juasa that the choker didn’t quite match the outfit Malorie wore, and she found it strange that a woman so taken with fashion always had it on. The more Juasa thought about it, the more she wondered if each of Malorie’s chokers was really the same one with different adornments attached.
Lara’s statement of Malorie being on her husband’s ‘leash’ came to mind, and Juasa wondered if there was a deeper meaning to those words than she had initially suspected.
THE BEATING
STELLAR DATE: 01.19.8512 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Revenence Castle
REGION: Persia, Midditerra System
Anna wiped her mouth as she rode the lift back up to the castle’s main level. Tom wasn’t a particularly good kisser, and the sandwich he’d been eating had contained a near-toxic amount of red onions.
Luckily, Anna only had to play with the man for a few minutes before Ainsley had arrived. From the look on Ainsley’s face, Anna could tell that the woman considered Tom to be her property. Strangely enough, Tom seemed to have no interest in Ainsley.
Probably because the woman is a class-A bitch.
Either way, it got her out of the room before she had to go any further with Tom, and for that, she was eternally grateful.
Anna’s next step was to get Verisa down to the medtable. The sooner the better; Anna didn’t want to leave time for Tom or Ainsley to spot her alterations, and change them back.
She checked the time. It was still two hours before the field workers would come in. Just long enough to execute her plan.
Anna worked her way across the castle’s main floor to one of the lesser-used staircases and descended to the level containing the cells. More importantly, it was the level with the small postern gate.
Twice, Anna almost ran into guards, but she had muted her clothing’s glow and hidden in the shadows as the brutes passed her by. Five minutes later, she was at the postern gate.
For the first time that afternoon, she was faced with a properly locked door. But Anna had been on the wrong side of the law more than once, and a minute later, she had the access panel open and the maglock circuitry bypassed.
She grinned as she pulled the door open and walked out into the warm afternoon air. It would stay in its current state for the next three hours, and then her patch would disengage, and the door would resume normal operation.
With luck, that would be just enough time for her to get out, have her meeting, and get back before anyone realized she was gone.
Anna walked casually across the bridge and down the road toward the fields. Her destination was not the field where Verisa worked—Liam had been informed by Malorie that Anna was not to exact anymore punishments, and she would not be welcome there.
Instead, she was headed to Parry’s field. Over the past week, she’d made friends with Parry—friends with benefits, to be precise. Initially she’d had no specific purpose in mind; Anna had simply decided that having one of the guards in her corner would be a good idea.
But as she had formulated this plan, her friendship with Parry had developed a specific value. A value she planned on cashing in this very afternoon.
As she approached Parry’s field, Anna slid the seal on her skinsuit down low, exposing her breasts, which she pushed up before running a hand through her hair to give it extra bounce.
“Parry,” she called out when she was within easy hearing distance. “I brought you something.”
Parry was standing at the edge of the road, looking out over his field, and he turned to face her, a happy grin on his face. “Oh yeah? I love surprises.”
“Well, less of a surprise and more of a refreshment,” Anna said as she reached him and pressed her body up against his. Parry didn’t hesitate to slide his hands down her back and grasp her ass.
“Yeah? This is just the sort of refreshment I need.” Parry leaned over and pressed his lips against hers.
Anna had to admit, the man had a good flavor—not too salty, a little sweet. And somehow his musk, even after standing in the hot sun all day, was still very alluring.
“I need you to do something for me,” Anna said. “A favor that I’ll repay any way you like.”
“Mmmm…there’s all sorts of things I’d like to do for you,” Parry said as he massaged her ass with one hand and pushed the other against her back, crushing her breasts against his chest.
“Not that kind of favor; I need you to get your workers to hurt someone.”
“What?” Parry asked, pulling back. “Usually I do the opposite…you know, stop the workers from hurting each other. Or I’m the one hurting them….”
“Well, this time you need to encourage a little chaos,” Anna said with a seductive smile as she pushed a leg between Parry’s.
His breathing shuddered for a moment. “Who’s the recipient?” he finally managed to ask.
“Verisa.”
Parry let out a rueful chuckle. “You really have it in for her, don’t you? This how you’re getting around Malorie’s edict?”
“I just want to remind Verisa that she’s not as safe as she thinks she is.”
“You’d not think that if you saw her. Liam hasn’t been kind today; the sunlight hasn’t, either.”
Anna snorted. “Yeah, but she’s still able to walk and work, right?”
“Of course,” Parry shrugged. “Not much use if she can’t.”
“I want her beaten so badly she can’t even crawl,” Anna whispered in a fierce hiss. Her allegiance with Verisa was one of convenience. She still hated the bitch, and watching her get the shit kicked out of her—even if she’d get healed right afterward—would make Anna’s day.
“Liam’s gonna be pissed,” Parry said hesitantly.
“I’ll make it so worth your while,” Anna replied. “I’ll even kill your wife, like we talked about. It’ll look like a total accident—no one will suspect a thing.”
Parry looked down into Anna’s eyes, and she met his with cold certainty and a slow smile.
“Deal,” Parry said after a minute. “I gotta get on this, there’s a few key guys I need to get on board. It’ll take some bribes, but they’ll be small; easily covered by what I’ll save by having that bitch of a wife out of my life.”
“I’ll leave you to it, then.”
Anna gave Parry a peck on the cheek, and then walked back up the road to the overseer’s station that stood across from the castle.
She entered the building and went back into the staff kitchen. It was near the end of the workday, and all the staff was out collecting the daily harvest and tallying quotas.
Anna helped herself to a cup of coffee and some pastries that were sitting on the table. She considered going back into the castle to cement her alibi, but the thought of watching the beatdown occur was just too tempting.<
br />
She relaxed for a while, surfing the feeds and chatting with some of her contacts around the castle over the Link while finishing off the pastries.
Eventually the time came when Katrina’s group would be forming up to turn in their vials, before the workers dispersed back to their homes further up the valley.
Many would walk past the castle—as would Verisa, along with her guard.
Anna poured a fresh cup of coffee and brought it outside with her, where she leaned against a pole holding up the building’s overhang. Sure enough, the fields were emptying out, and some of the workers were already on the road.
In the distance, she could make out the field where Verisa was working. The massive bulk of Liam was easy to spot in the crowds. If she squinted, she could see a red shape moving toward the road in the midst of all the white-clothed workers.
She was almost giddy with anticipation. Soon Verisa would be on the medtable and free of the collar.
A worry floated in the back of Anna’s mind that Verisa wouldn’t hold up her end of the bargain. It was a risk—but so was trusting Jace and his bitch-queen of a wife.
Earlier in the week, Anna had stolen the activation codes for one of the shuttles. She’d be Verisa’s ride out of here, proving herself to be indispensable; until they found Verisa’s ship…then she’d kill the bitch and take it all for herself.
She watched with growing anticipation as the red shape of Verisa grew larger, being led through the crowds of workers by one of the guards.
“C’mon,” she whispered. “Don’t let me down, Parry.”
Then there was a surge of white figures on the road and she knew it was about to happen.
THE END OF DAYS
STELLAR DATE: 01.19.8512 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Revenence Castle
REGION: Persia, Midditerra System
Katrina was certain that she’d never felt wearier than she did at that moment. Once she’d stayed awake for over one hundred hours—which felt like the best time of her life, compared to this.
The guard—she had no idea who it was, it could have been a ten-year old girl shoving her around, and she wouldn’t be able to resist—gave another push, and Katrina stumbled onward.