Danny winced again upon recalling his final moments with them. It’d cut him to the core to leave them that way, to say those things to Lee. But he’d had no choice, and the further removed he got from that decision the more Danny was good with it. Besides, it wasn’t as if he’d left them with nothing. He’d brought them a fresh cadaver of their enemy to study along with a wealth of data on the Kurgorians’ armor thanks to the extra time he’d spent on the flight deck before speaking. Those scans would be priceless in the days ahead. Couple it all with the pod they had in their possession, plus the intel from Briggs and Zier, and with any luck, the ASC wouldn’t stay down in this fight for long.
In the meantime, Danny would now be free to come and go as he chose—to plot and plan as he saw fit, with no backlash or repercussions to anyone save himself…just as it needed to be.
Rubbing a chill from his bare shoulders, Danny sucked another gasp of the regulator then picked up the tablet he’d dumped before leaving the Axius. The tablet had all the sensor data. There were quite a few systems nearby, and he’d need to take refuge on one of them. Somewhere close. His air was almost completely out and once that happened—once that last line of defense against the alien air was gone—Danny was pretty sure that his present state of nausea would pale in comparison to the psychedelic trip-show that apparently came next. Furthermore, his alien craft was anything but discreet, which meant he’d need to dump it, and fast, before moving on.
Danny’s search ended abruptly when his eyes crossed a familiar name: Marlon 3.
“Detron City,” he murmured with a touch of eagerness. Marlon 3 was barely a terasec away, which made it totally doable, and even though Danny had never actually set foot in Detron City, he knew of its reputation as a haven for the less than economically scrupulous—smugglers, pirates, supply runners, and the like. Just the sort he’d need for his plans. Even better, he’d probably be able to flip his alien ride for a decent price when he got there.
The centurion’s armor, on the other hand, Danny figured he’d keep…for a while, at least, until he figured things out.
Feeling his adrenaline begin to rush with newfound purpose, Danny laid in a course and headed out, all the while thinking: Damn, I need a drink.
* * * * *
Chapter 42: Recovery
Lee jolted awake with a start the next morning, the gruesome images of Madisyn and Danny’s deaths still swirling through his mind from last evening’s nightmare. Drenched in the same cold sweat that’d gripped him for most of the night, Lee swung his bare legs onto the floor and tried yet again to rub his shoulders free of the chill that, after close to twelve hours, still refused to let him be.
“Mac?” He looked around, finding an empty mattress beside him.
“Kitchen,” she answered from beyond the door.
Throwing on a t-shirt, Lee trudged into the next room of their quarters on the Kennox and found Mac propped at their tiny dinette table with a hot mug of black coffee between her palms.
“How long you been up?” Lee asked, pouring a cup of his own and slumping down into the seat beside her.
“An hour or so. Just couldn’t sleep, ya know?”
Lee nodded.
“I just don’t get it, Lee.” Mac’s deep, hazel eyes fixed on her mug. “You think about all the stuff we’ve been through…all the stuff Danny alone has been through. How does it end up like this?”
Lee shook his head and flicked the corner of a napkin in front of him. “I don’t know, Mac. I really don’t, although I’m hopin’ Zier and that other fella can shed some more light on all this.”
“You gonna talk to them?”
“Yeah, later today. I’m supposed to take a shuttle down to Manning at 0800 where they’re bein’ held. After that, Wylon wants to meet with me about plannin’ a memorial service for Danny and Madisyn.”
“How’s he faring through all of this?”
Lee stared into his coffee. “About as well as the rest of us, I reckon. After my meeting with him, I’ve gotta head back to Earth to tend to the last of Danny’s affairs, which thankfully shouldn’t take long. It’s not like he had any next of kin to inform, and he’d pretty much closed out every other aspect of his life there—bank accounts, real estate, that sort of thing.”
“What about the Camaro? That thing was pretty much Danny’s prized possession. Any thoughts on what you’re gonna do with it?”
“Link wants it. He’s gonna keep it at his Dad’s place in Denver, so that when Don and Frank are old enough to drive, he can teach them in their Uncle Danny’s ride.”
“I’m actually kinda happy to hear that,” Mac said with a flicker of a melancholy smile. “Pretty sure Danny would’ve been, too.”
Lee turned a thoughtful gaze to the stars outside of his living room’s portholes. “Yeah…”
A tri-toned chime rang from the comm terminal across the room, and rising from his chair, Lee crossed the floor in his bare feet to answer it. “Go for Summerston.”
“Lee, it’s Katie. Hamish is up if you wanna come see him.”
Lee turned to Mac, who was already halfway to her closet in their bedroom. “On our way.”
* * *
Trotting down their shuttle’s boarding ramp onto the deck of the Praetorian, Lee and Mac hopped the lift up to the infirmary where Link, Layla, Katie, and Wyatt were already waiting by Hamish’s bedside.
“Hey big man, how you feelin’?” Lee asked.
Hamish grimaced, his dark brown eyes still heavy from the anesthesia. “The phrase ‘a dog’s breakfast’ comes to mind.” He squinted a bit when Katie checked his pupils with her penlight. “But somehow I don’t think that quite does it justice.”
“You gave us quite a scare there, man,” Mac said with a pat of his leg. “Please don’t ever do that again.”
“Aye, trust me. Getting maself blown up whilst saving the day is officially off of my bucket list. That said, to hear Wyatt and others speak of it, I fear it wasn’t enough. I mean, if I’d have only—”
“Hey Hamish?” Wyatt said. “Forty-three of our guys got to go home to their families on account of you. Believe me…it was enough.”
Hamish sighed wearily then regarded his bandage-covered chest before looking to Katie. “So from what I hear, I’ve apparently got ma own personal guardian angel looking out for me. Now isn’t that a thing.”
“Uh huh.” She smiled back. “Bet you’re glad you didn’t narc me out to my little brother for sticking around now, aren’t you?”
Hamish tried to laugh only to wince in anguish.
“All right, gang, visiting hours are up,” Katie said, shifting back to doctor mode. “Hamish has a long recovery ahead of him, and that starts with some quality rest. Everybody out.”
The group nodded and said their respective goodbyes before heading for the door.
* * *
“Hey Kris, can you hold up a second?” Katie crossed the floor of Hamish’s room to meet Wyatt in the hall outside. “How’s the leg?”
“Are you kidding?” Wyatt laughed and pulled up his pant leg to reveal the strikingly realistic synth-flesh of his custom-built prosthesis. “This thing’s fantastic! Hell, part of me wishes I’d lost both of my legs so I’d never have to worry about shin splints again.”
Katie gave a chuckle of her own. It showed a lot of character, she thought, that he could remain so upbeat about something so serious. “You know, rumor is you just about screwed your shot to wear one of those by running out of here like a maniac yesterday on that Terminator-looking thing. Don’t get me wrong, as one of the hundreds of people who benefitted from that little act of heroism and insanity, I appreciate it. But Nurse Yaley says you could’ve fried the remaining nerve endings in your leg, which might’ve caused your body to reject the prosthesis.”
Wyatt shrugged. “Simpson is without a doubt one of the brightest engineers in this fleet. But, in a lot of ways every ship takes on the…” He paused, as if in search of the right word. “Personality, I guess, of
her engineer. Tweaks, patches, adjustments, that sort of thing. They’re all a reflection of those of us who work on them each and every day. Therefore, given the time constraints we were under and the fact that Jon’s been away for more than a year, I figured it a pretty safe bet he’d need me to get our people out of harm’s way.” Wyatt’s look turned sideways. “Honestly, it was kind of a no-brainer.”
Katie nodded. “Hey, speaking of your people, you mind if I ask you something?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“According to Doctor Deemer’s report, the exertion you put on your leg while pulling Hamish out of danger is what cost you the limb. Now again, as somebody who’s known the big guy for years, I’m grateful. But it’s not as if he’s one of yours.”
Wyatt looked confused. “And your point is?”
“My point is he’s from another world,” Katie said, “and while I get that you guys are all colleagues—buddies even—people don’t typically put their own lives on the line for outsiders like that. So what gives?”
Wyatt didn’t respond right away. He just stared back at Hamish, who’d already dozed off. “A lot of people look at Lee, Hamish, and the others, and they see a group of people that we took in. And that’s true, to a large extent. But for some of us, it goes way beyond that.” He returned his focus to Katie. “For some of us, we were the ones that they took in. You didn’t know me five years ago, and to be honest, I’m kinda glad you didn’t. For a lot of reasons, I wasn’t exactly in the greatest of shape back then.”
“I know about your wife and child,” Katie said, not really caring if he knew that she’d been looking into him. “I read about them on the casualty report from the Phaxus mission. I’m so sorry.”
Wyatt dropped his eyes and cleared his throat. “I appreciate that. In any event, I wasn’t letting a whole lot of people into my life when the Renegades arrived. As a matter of fact, I’d pretty much shut everyone out, even my closest friends. But when it came to Lee and the others, that simply wasn’t acceptable. They pushed me to get better, supported me at a time when that was the last thing I wanted but desperately needed, and through it all they became way more than friends to me. They became like family. So, in answer to your question as to why I’d stick my neck out for them…Well, as they like to put it, that’s just what family does.”
Katie tucked her hands into the pockets of her lab coat and regarded Kris Wyatt with a mixture of bewilderment, intrigue, and total empathy. She’d only known him for a few days, and while that hardly made her an expert on him or his world, she completely understood his point when it came to Lee and the others’ penchant for community. They’d always been that way—always. She also knew how much they’d need that now in the wake of losing Danny. Not for a second did she doubt whether this man would be there for them, either.
Katie and Wyatt gazed at each other for a long moment.
“Engineering to Chief,” a voice called over the infirmary speakers, snapping them out of it.
Wyatt reached past Katie’s shoulder for the wall terminal. “Yeah, go ahead, Simpson.”
“I think we’re all clear down here if you want to come sign off.”
“On my way.” Wyatt released the comm button and returned to Katie. “Listen, Simpson has to get back to the Bakersmith, which means I have to go relieve him. Will I be seeing you around?”
Her thoughts suddenly filling with her son, her job, and her empty house in Seattle, Katie Summerston considered that question on every possible level. “Yeah…Yeah, I think you might.”
* * * * *
Chapter 43: Interrogation
“Wonder what ole Noll is getting out of Zier right now,” Link said from his seat next to Lee outside of interrogation room two.
Lee didn’t feel like answering. He just stood there, staring through the glass at the shackled Alystierian captain sitting alone at a table on the other side. Who exactly are you, boss? And why are you here?
Given his choice, Lee would’ve rather spoken to Zier first, but Noll had pulled rank on that one. Then, once Danny’s ex-CO was finished, the former chancellor would go to none other than President Wylon for interrogation—and Zier had better damn well be glad it was happening in that order, too. Lee had caught quite a bit of the local scuttlebutt since touching down at Fort Manning’s airfield a little while ago, and if half of it was true, Wylon might’ve just as easily torn the chancellor’s face off as speak to him two hours ago—diplomacy be damned.
Lee wouldn’t have blamed him one bit if he’d done it, either, and he wasn’t even a parent yet.
Still, as the interrogation schedule went for today, that left this man—this enemy captain—as his only potential source for information.
“Lee, you with me?” Link snapped his fingers.
“Yeah, yeah,” Lee said, breaking from his trance. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“Okay good. Now that we’ve got that established, what’s your plan with this guy? You gonna ask him about these Kurgorian things, or what?”
“No. I’ll leave the politics to the politicians. I want to know about Danny—specifically what he was doing on that ship and how he came to be there.”
“Okay, I dig it,” Link said. “Any thoughts, though, on what happens if he doesn’t want to talk?”
“Oh, he’ll talk to me.”
Link’s brow beetled as he slowly rose to his feet and started for the door. “Well all right then. Let’s go hear what he’s got to say.”
“Not you.” Lee held his friend back by the arm. “You’re stayin’ put in here. I need to do this alone.”
“Easy, brother,” Link said. “Listen, I get you wanting to go all Jack Bauer on this guy, really I do. Given everything these people have done to our friends, believe me, I wouldn’t mind peeling a little meat off of this prick, either. But in spite of our smack-talk to the contrary sometimes, you and I both know that’s not how we operate.”
Lee rolled his eyes. “For cryin’ out loud, Link, I’m not gonna shiv the guy! But I do need him to know that I mean business. Got it?”
Link raised his palms in surrender. “All right, fine. I just hope you know what you’re doing, Top.”
Seeing his friend stand aside, Lee moved to the door, took a long breath, and reached for the room’s access panel.
Once inside the interrogation room, Lee closed the door behind him and turned to regard his subject with an icy stare. He got a wrinkled smirk back.
“So what?” the captain asked dryly. “I guess this is the part where I’m supposed to start spouting my name, rank, and serial number to you over and over and over again, right?”
Lee tilted his head. “Ain’t much of a conversation, but it’s a start.”
The captain gave a snort of amusement. “I’m Captain Nathan Briggs, loyal soldier to the Alystierian Empire and executive officer of the warship, Kamuir.”
“The Kamuir?” Lee failed to conceal his surprise. “You’re Masterson’s XO?”
“That’s the rumor,” Briggs said. “At least, it used to be, before I became a traitor and everything.”
Lee pulled up a chair opposite Briggs and took a seat. “I’m gonna take it from your sarcasm that this was your choice?”
Briggs made a face, as if to suggest that Lee couldn’t have asked a stupider question. “Of course, I’m here by choice. Somebody had to get Chancellor Zier out of Eurial and off of Alystier, otherwise he’d have been dead by the end of the day.”
Lee furrowed an eyebrow. “Why do you care? I mean, isn’t the great Commandant Masterson supposed to be some kinda military messiah to you people?”
Briggs gave another snort. “Depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether or not you believe everything you read in the press,” Briggs said. “Then again, to those of us who’ve actually served with him, we know he’s just as fallible as the rest of us. The only difference is, for better or for worse, he’s ten times as committed to what he wants.”
“Which in
this case was Zier’s job,” Lee surmised.
Briggs offered a mocking applause. “Nicely done, ASC. You come up with that on your own or did your cronies at CIB help you out? You’ve got a massive leak there, by the way.”
“And you know this how?”
“Masterson was always on cue with you guys somehow. It was like he knew where you were gonna be before you got there.”
Lee scoffed. “I guess that’s why he failed to hold Vendale 2 and more than a dozen other worlds in the last two years, right?”
Briggs leaned in. “He wanted you to take those worlds because it made Zier look weak to his own people. Don’t you get it? This was all a power play from the start so he could seize control of the chancellery and kick-start his alliance with the Kurgorians!”
Lee exhaled to the ceiling in frustration. He hadn’t come in here to discuss Alystierian politics. “Tell me about the ASC soldier who was with you on the Axius.”
“Who, Tucker? Helluva good man, but I suspect you already knew that. So what else do you need to know?”
Lee shot a surprised look to Link through the mirrored glass on his right. “How did it come to be that he and Madisyn Reynolds ended up in Alystierian custody?”
The Alystierian captain leaned back in his seat and let his eyes meet the floor.
Is that genuine guilt?
“It’s my fault they were there,” Briggs said. “I led the boarding party onto the Larrin to catch him, but I swear to the gods I had no clue she’d be there.”
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