by Holly Ice
‘I haven’t hurt anyone, and you have no proof I head anything.’
Denial and anger. What was he trying to hide? The Ludis I knew would have cooperated in a heartbeat if he knew someone was hurt. He wouldn’t need us to threaten him with proof of involvement. ‘James is my friend, Ludis. I spoke to Aina. I know you’ve been meeting people. You’re saying they’ll know nothing about this?’
He’d shown no shock, asked no questions about the injuries suffered, made no offer to ask around to see who did this. He was behind this, or knew about it. I couldn’t have felt more sick. When had he decided people he’d grown up with were prime candidates to beat for his cause? Was it when he’d called us infected, or after? Could I have stopped this if I’d quit the programme?
He glared at the jack in the door, as if to remove it by glare alone. ‘Again, I didn’t hurt anyone, I don’t know anything about this attack, and I resent the inquisition.’
‘But you are a nanite opponent and you have met with the committee to request their removal from the mission,’ Quinn said.
‘Yes. That doesn’t mean I, or people who agree with me, are violent.’
I stared at Ludis, watching for a crack. ‘I don’t believe you. You know who hurt James. You’re not asking the right questions for someone who’s horrified a member of this crew was almost beaten to death.’
‘I’m sure that’s an exaggeration. He had nanites in his system, did he not?’
Quinn blew out his breath. ‘Like nanites make a beating any better. They kicked his ribs in!’
‘Unless you plan on asking your security guards to arrest me, I think you should leave.’
‘Tell us where to find your friends,’ Yara said. ‘We need to have a chat.’
‘We’ve done nothing wrong. Leave, or come back with a better argument.’
I squared off with him, drawing myself up close to his height. ‘Were you involved, Ludis? Were you one of the people who kicked James, who broke his legs, who turned his face into a swollen mass? Or did you stand there and watch, cheer them on? I promise you, we will find out.’
His eye twitched, the first glimmer of emotion since we got here.
‘So, you do feel some sympathy.’
‘I don’t know anything about this attack.’
‘I don’t believe you. Come on, Ludis. You know you’ll spend less time in the lockers if you tell us who was involved and where to find them. Whatever you think of system nanites, you must know violence does your cause no good.’
Something clattered to the deck inside the room. Ludis glanced over his shoulder and was hauled back inside.
The door jack dropped to the floor as the doors swished open and a fist hurtled toward my forehead. Yara blocked it. I barely had time to step back before half a dozen men and women spilled out the door. They aimed elbows at my ribs, punches at my head and stomach, kicks when I moved out of reach. One grabbed my arm. I lashed out and pushed them back. Security rushed into the gap, fighting as many as they could, but there were too many for them to handle alone.
In that brief pause between hits, I had a clear view into Ludis’s cabin. Screens covered the nearest table, lit as if we’d interrupted something, and two comm calls winked out before I caught the occupants.
‘Let them go,’ Ludis said. He dithered in the doorway, as if unsure which side to join.
I dodged a head whipper of a punch and blocked a kick from the man on my right. Someone else yanked me backwards. I flailed but couldn’t wrench free. A woman pummelled my stomach while I was caught. Air huffed out of me until I gasped and scratched and bit at anything I could reach, arms and legs half-wild, until my jailer grunted and lost his grip.
I didn’t wait to find out why. I spun and slammed my boot into his groin. He crumpled with a pained squeak as he cradled himself. I grinned with pure malice. Served him right.
Yara caught my eye. Her cheekbone was bruised and blood dripped from her fists and forearms, but she hadn’t slowed. If anything, she was quicker than in our sparring matches.
Her opponent swung wildly, his knife forcing her back faster than the rest of us between his occasional ineffective kicks at Yara’s midsection. I looked between her and security, who fought with their batons near Ludis’s door. We couldn’t get separated.
I whistled to gain their attention. The lead guard, a lithe man who moved like a dancer among the fight, nodded.
‘Back up. We’ve called for reinforcements.’
‘Stop cutting them!’ Ludis yelled, concern dripping into his tone. ‘You heard what he said. More are coming. We need to go.’
His words didn’t make a difference. His friends weren’t slowing. They’d fight us for every inch we retreated, but Yara was already metres back. I cursed and backed up with her. Reinforcements wouldn’t be long.
Quinn’s eyes met mine over the fighting, and he made to follow.
We punched and kicked as we retreated five metres, then ten. This definitely counted as an emergency. I fumbled along the wall between punches and felt for a button. There. I jammed it down and eyed the elevator’s floor level. Two floors away. Close.
The doors dinged open a minute later. Three further guards rushed out and took the fighters off our hands, stunners at the ready. Two of Ludis’s fighters collapsed as we scrambled in, and the third fell as the doors closed. They must have detoured to the armoury before arriving, but it was worth it.
The metal walls filled with the sound of our heavy breathing, Yara bent, gasping for air. Blood and sweat dotted the floor.
‘Now that was a workout,’ she said.
Quinn frowned. ‘They’re beyond reason. We need security to identify everyone in this group and lock them up until the mission team leaves.’
I hated it, but he was right. Ludis had lost control. His group could have submitted to questions and an inspection, but instead they’d panicked and fought, even overcoming their nanite aversion to do so. They needed to be locked up, before they prodded the crew into a full-scale revolt.
* * *
We hurried to the committee room. James was still unconscious on the table. Everyone had crowded around to debate the finer details of Ludis’s team and add what they knew. Then they noticed Yara was bleeding, and their discussion came to a quick halt.
‘What happened?’ Rima asked. ‘Did Ludis hurt you? And where’s the security team?’
‘No,’ Yara said, ‘Ludis waited at the door. He asked the fanatics to stop.’ She offered up her arms, crisscrossed with wounds. Without the frantic pace of a fight, I could get a good look. A few were deep enough to glimpse white, hitting what could only be bone. ‘They weren’t cooperative. Security called for reinforcements. They covered our exit.’
‘He’s lost control,’ Quinn said.
Sabine swept her gaze over us. ‘I’ll call Meri. Security should already have sealed the area with the bulkheads once you got out, but she’ll want to get deck patrols up and running in case any of these attackers escaped. Colonial will join them. Most have more than basic security training.’
She got on her comm’s holographic keyboard, bringing up contacts, and was face-to-face with the security head in moments, talking through what little we knew.
‘How many were in the fight?’ Rima asked us.
‘Six, not including Ludis, but I don’t think that’s all of them. My parents said they were recruiting,’ I said.
‘Nine came when they met with the committee. Sabine, can we check security cameras, try to identify who’s involved?’
She scoffed. ‘We already tried. Meri says they’ve scrambled their comm codes, looped or shut down security cameras in the area, and got through the bulkheads with some kind of hack. They’re definitely the same bunch behind James’s attack.’
‘How about research?’ Rima asked. ‘They could try to unscramble the signals or track the hacker?’
‘Fine, sure. We can try that. We still should have known about this earlier.’ She glared at me, and my heart panged wit
h guilt. I should have done more. We all should.
Sabine pulled in a deep breath and let it go. ‘We need to call an emergency committee meeting. Ksenia, get James to health. The rest of you, stay on deck. We don’t know where these people are or who they are. If they’re targeting nanite users, they could ambush you anywhere. You’re on high alert. Understood?’
We nodded. Ksenia called over the nearest red overalled doctor and arranged James’s transport. The woman had a bounce in her step as soon as she was asked to move him. I couldn’t blame her. Treating him here must have been nerve-racking. It was bad enough to watch, and I didn’t have his life in my hands… though I might be responsible for his current state. I should have talked to Ludis more, tried harder, but I still had no idea what I could have said to change things. The nagging voice at the back of my head insisted there must have been something.
I bumped my hand against Quinn’s, needing the comfort of skin. He laced our fingers and squeezed. ‘Are you okay?’
‘This isn’t him. Ludis is a sweet guy.’
‘He didn’t start out wanting this. If he did, he’d be helping them hurt people. He’s lost control. Security will help get it back.’
‘They’ll lock him up.’
Quinn pulled me into a hug. ‘We’re helping him. Hold on to that.’
* * *
The exploration team huddled in the small room off navigation to wait for the committee meeting to finish. The mood was grim. Ashoka rubbed his face and refused to look at anyone. Ksenia wrung her hands and wondered aloud how James was doing while Maria sat on the table and held a lively blaming session. Others whispered about their families and friends below decks, and whether they would be safe while patrols hunted James’s attackers.
Yara didn’t help settle the mood. Her wounds had improved, but she wouldn’t sit still. She paced back and forth across the room and peered out at intervals. It set my teeth on edge.
‘Can you stop? We’re nervous enough.’
‘I trained for this. I should be out there helping, not hiding in here and waiting for the criminals to be caught.’
‘I’m sure they’ll be found soon. They’re scared, not masterminds.’
She rolled a shoulder. ‘Being scared is no excuse.’
‘No, it’s not.’
I didn’t know what else to add. This wasn’t like Ludis. It wasn’t like anyone on this ship, but people were tense about Ristar, about the nanites, about their lives changing in ways we didn’t yet understand. That, I could understand. And I could understand the anger they felt when their voices weren’t heard, and the powerlessness it came from. Understanding was what made their hateful reaction so difficult to accept. We like to think assailants are monsters, but this hadn’t come out of nowhere.
Kuba knocked on the door frame. ‘Everyone still here? Committee needs you.’
The team filed past me and out the door, but I signalled Kuba into a quiet corner. ‘You should know, Aina thought her comm messages were being read.’ Whether I trusted him or not didn’t matter much anymore. Ludis’s group was in the open. If he’d betrayed the committee, they’d soon realise, and if he hadn’t, we might find the group quicker.
‘She overreacts. It’s probably nothing.’
‘And if it’s not? You must have heard what this group can do. Don’t you oversee comm access, or can your team look up anything they want?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘If someone in my team is gaining unauthorised access to personal devices, they’ll be in the lockers along with the bruisers who attacked James. Your mother would confirm this: I’ve never gone through anyone’s private communication without their express permission or committee approval, including yours, and I won’t tolerate it in my crew.’
‘Glad to hear it.’
‘They’re waiting.’ Quinn half pulled me into the committee room, cutting off further chat.
Kuba adjusted his sleeves and reclaimed his seat.
Rima addressed us. ‘We’ve voted on a preliminary exploration team based on the Ristar data we have.’
What did that mean? Was this team permanent, or some kind of stopgap? And wouldn’t announcing people just give this group better targets? Quinn’s frown was as deep as mine, and the sudden surge of whispers around us meant we weren’t the only ones pondering the decision.
‘This allows us to focus security on those selected and means we can launch the mission early as a last resort. I hope to everything we don’t need it, but if we do, the preliminary team is to get to the lander and leave for Ristar. For now, candidates are not to roam the ship alone, and no one is to leak the selected team to the crew.’
I shivered. Leaving the ship on the lander, months from Ristar, was more desperate than prudent. Months on a transport ship would be less than comfortable, and leaving in the midst of chaos meant there’d be no guarantee the larger ship would be settled by the time they reported in.
‘Can we offer our opinion on the team?’ Ashoka asked, giving Yara side-eye.
‘We’ll discuss conflicts or new information. If all goes to plan, we’ll return to training and pick the final team again in a few months, but as things stand, our final six are Ratan, Quinn, Yara, Ksenia, Errai and Lamar.’
The room was dead silent.
I was stunned. I hadn’t thought I had a hope. Yara looked smug, Ratan had a sly smile painted on his lips, and Quinn was grinning at me. Ksenia and Lamar were more withdrawn.
‘What happens now?’ I asked.
Sabine smiled. ‘You have to win the popular vote.’
I bit my tongue. ‘You were split?’ On the rare occasion the committee vote was that close, it forced a ship-wide vote, just like Ludis wanted for the nanites.
Rima nodded. ‘You were the only marginal candidate.’
I bit my lip. That meant I’d be the only potential team member who’d be announced to the crew, and the only sure target.
‘Is it really necessary?’ Kuba butted in. ‘With the ship as it is, it doesn’t seem prudent.’
‘We can hardly deny Ludis his vote due to convention and then go against our own laws to avoid Errai’s,’ Meri said, catching the eye of every committee member. ‘There’s no surer way to incense this group.’
‘Will the crew be safe?’ I asked.
‘As safe as my security team can make it,’ Meri said. ‘Voters will be collected by patrols in fours or fives from their cabins, then escorted back.’
Sabine spread her hands. ‘Of course, if you’d like to step down and avoid the need for a vote, they’d be safer, as would you.’
Despite her joyful tone, I considered it. I’d never been popular. I was a kin kid. We didn’t have many friends on what had become a tank kid ship. I’d gained James and Ksenia, but James hadn’t woken up yet, and even they hadn’t swayed public opinion in my favour. All I’d gain from a vote was embarrassment. Was it worth me asking the crew to put themselves in danger over a foregone conclusion?
I turned to Quinn. ‘Maybe I should back out.’
He slipped his hand into mine and squeezed. ‘No. You want this.’
I slipped out his hold. ‘That’s not the point. I know what they’ll say.’
‘You don’t know anything until they’ve voted,’ Ksenia said. ‘Like James and I said, you don’t deserve their hate, and I’ll make sure they understand how useful you’d be on the ground. I want you with us.’
Her mention of James hit home. Wouldn’t avoiding a vote be betraying him? He’d faced incredible pain as a member of our team. If I gave up, I wasn’t fighting with him.
Ashoka inclined his head. ‘I’d be happy to have you at my back.’
I looked to the other applicants. No one had left, including those who hadn’t been picked. After Sabine’s punishments and the latest attack, we were more than colleagues, even Yara. But I was scared. I’d been turned on before. Nothing stopped them from changing their mind and leaving me at the mercy of an angry crew who thought I was nothing more than an unskilled, ungrate
ful liar.
‘I’m not letting you say no,’ Quinn said. ‘We’ll support you. The crew deserve to know who you are, hear what you can bring to the team. I want you there when we land, and I’ll fight to make sure you’re on that ship.’
‘I don’t know…’ I glanced at the blood bandages left behind on the committee table and quickly looked away, my throat sore.
‘You’re doing it.’ Quinn turned to Kuba. ‘How long do we have before the vote?’
‘Two days. If we round up the rest of Ludis’s group, perhaps we could delay, but…’
‘Two days, okay. What happens if the team needs to leave before then?’
Sabine smirked. ‘Errai stays.’
I gritted my teeth. Even my bones clenched. I couldn’t let it end like that. ‘What are you doing to find these people?’
‘Research will examine James for any evidence left behind. They’ll also try to track the tech that hid the group and reverse the scrambled comm signals for both this attack and the one on James. It’s our best shot at finding them,’ Kuba said. ‘Of course, we’ll try to get what we can from those captured or recognised in the scuffle downstairs but…’ He spread his hands.
I shifted my gaze to Meri. As head of security, I trusted her opinion far more than I trusted Kuba’s. ‘Do you think they’ll attack again?’
‘They won’t gain further support if they continue to beat people. If they’re clever, they’ll use Errai’s vote to launch their own agenda, push for crew input on other aspects of the mission.’
‘Like nanites.’ Sabine’s voice was almost a growl.
‘Exactly. They want nanites as far from Ristar as possible. The only way they’ll make that happen is through a popular vote.’
‘Will they get one?’ I asked.
Meri glanced at Rima. ‘No. We can’t give in to their violence.’
‘And when they realise they won’t get their vote, what then?’ I asked.
‘We don’t know how big or cohesive this group is. I can’t accurately guess how they’d react now, let alone when their emotions are high.’
‘So they could attack again?’
‘Possibly.’
‘Is it not better to give in to their demands?’ Ksenia asked. ‘I’d rather not see anyone else injured.’