Carefully, blaster drawn, he approached the open door to the bonded stores, staying out of the line of sight of anyone who might be standing in the main hold. He crept the last few feet, crouching behind the column of crates he and Khevan had built to catch the door, should its mechanism fail.
And then he heard sounds, too.
Voices.
“Fuck.” Nick jumped as Khevan came up next to him, also moving cautiously. “Damn, you creep around like a Special Forces operator, Brother. Don’t sneak up on me – you’re liable to get shot, now I have my blaster.”
“Sorry.” Khevan motioned at the open door. “Problem?”
“Maybe. Listen.”
Nick heard multiple voices in the main hold, calling excitedly to each other, although the words were indistinct. A motor roared into life, followed a moment later by a loud banging reverberation.
“Using the cargo mover as a battering ram to break into the sealed container area, you think?” Khevan hazarded.
“Yeah.” Nick nodded grimly. “The boy said he heard a crashing sound. Probably whoever is out there using the robot. Damn. Just a few more minutes, and we’d have been clear.”
“Surely we have the superior hand here.” Khevan held up his ornate blaster. “Whoever’s out there can’t have weapons.”
“Not unless they’re crew, working with or for Bonlors, maybe.” Nick considered for a minute. “That would be an ugly new wrinkle. Not too likely, though. The AI said Bonlors took a shuttle and fled a long time ago. Watch the entrance while I get the rest of our party organized, okay? Sing out if anyone comes near.”
“Plan?” Khevan checked his weapon.
“Try talking our way out. Get ourselves to the grav lift. Whoever’s out there is welcome to all the salvage they want as far as I’m concerned.”
“How they anticipate hauling it away is a mystery.” Khevan peered at the hold deck.
“Not my problem. I’ll be right back.” Nick slid away, going to where Mara, Twilka and the children stood in a tight group, hands linked.
Nick rested a reassuring hand on Mara’s shoulder for a second, noticing she had the borrowed blaster tucked into her belt. “Small obstacle, people. Looters out there now. I don’t know how many.”
“What do we do?” Mara drew the blaster, flicking off the safety.
“I want the four of you to stick together, behind Khevan. I’m going to go out there and confront whoever it is, tell them all we want is to reach the grav lift without a hassle. When I signal, then Mara and Khevan will go first, with Twilka and the children behind. I’ll stand rearguard until you’ve gotten away in the grav lift. You remember the access code?” he asked Mara, who nodded, her face white but calm.
He led the way to the door. Looking one more time at the small group for which he was responsible, he conjured up a confident smile from the depths of his tired being. “Ready?”
He got nods, some more enthusiastic than others.
Blaster at the ready, Nick stepped into the main hold. Ten or fifteen men were scattered through the vast area, some working with the robot to break into what few containers remained, others gathering items of interest and bringing them to a central pile. About half wore SMT uniforms. One man, in an SMT officer’s tunic, was supervising from beside this growing treasure trove.
Assessing the situation rapidly, Nick felt a bit more optimistic. The odds aren’t good, but at least I don’t see any weapons.
“Excuse me,” he said, his voice carrying effortlessly.
Frozen in place by the unexpected interruption, the looters turned to stare at him.
Nick raised the blaster so the men in the crowd could see it. “I hate to interfere and I won’t stay long, believe me, but I wanted to let you know my party and I will be leaving now. We don’t want any trouble.”
“Well, considerate of you,” said the man in charge of the looting party. “But we outnumber you. Even with your impressive blaster. And you’re where we want to go, in the bonded storage. Where all the best goodies are. Our goodies, mister.”
Some of the looters were muttering, picking up odd lengths of pipe and other handy debris, preparing to swarm Nick if their leader gave the word.
As Khevan appeared, blaster out and ready, Nick tensed. The motley crowd gave ground.
“Two blasters against fifteen guys with bare hands and clubs is not a good bet for you, no matter how you calculate it,” Nick advised the man leading the gang.
“I wouldn’t try it,” Khevan drawled easily.
“There’s no need to risk it,” Nick urged his opponent. “You’re welcome to anything in here. All I want is a nice peaceful walk across the deck to the grav lift. And we’ll promise to forget anything or anyone we saw here, okay?”
“Ship’s been abandoned,” the looter chief observed. “It’s every man for himself now. We’re entitled to whatever we can find and carry out of here. You agree?”
“I don’t care, I told you that. I have my own agenda, which doesn’t include salvage rights,” Nick said.
“And what might your agenda be?”
“My business.” Nick shook his head slightly.
Khevan fired a quick shot at a man who was edging too close, as if he might be tempted to try rushing them from the side. Drilled neatly through the head, the looter crumpled.
The D’nvannae’s got no compunctions about killing anyone who gets in his way tonight. Nick watched the other men retreat, but the angry muttering increased.
The leader glared at his men. “One less to split the take with. Now don’t anyone else get ideas, or I’ll kill them myself. Got it?” And he flashed a small but eminently serviceable blaster before speaking to Nick again. “All right, mister, you say you want out, so get out. And take whoever else is hiding in there with you. But don’t come here again. We’ll be ready, understand?”
“No problem,” Nick promised easily.
“And don’t bother trying to find our lifeboat either,” the officer warned. “I’ve got it locked to my own personal code and we left three guys guarding it, in return for an extra share of the haul. We ain’t taking passengers.”
Nick pushed back the anger rising in him. “Fine. Best of luck to you.” This thug’s in for one hell of a surprise when he finally sets out in the lifeboat and discovered he’s in Sector Seventeen, not Sixteen. Nick raised his voice slightly. “Mara, Twilka, children, come on. We’re going now.”
The women came out, Mara in the lead, blaster ready. Twilka had the two children by the hands, and all three of them huddled behind Mara. Moving away from Nick, Khevan joined Mara as a living shield for the others in their party. As the men caught sight of the two women, there was a long whistle from someone in the shadows of the hold.
“Damn, didn’t know they had females in there! We should have –”
“Belay that!” The renegade SMT officer glared at his motley crew. “We can get plenty of women with what we’re salvaging, women who’ll be happy to party with rich men like us. No time for anything else right now.” He waved his small blaster in Nick’s direction. “Get out of here.”
“Happy to oblige.” Moving toward the grav lift, Nick kept his full attention on the mob of looters in front of him. He swept the blaster slowly from side to side, menacing them all equally as he stepped backward.
As the grav-lift door chimed open, there was an oath from Khevan, followed immediately by the whine of blasters. Nick fired a barrage in automatic mode, to keep the men at bay, running to the lift. Khevan was straddling two dead men who had the extremely bad timing to arrive and step out of the lift as Nick’s party walked up to it. Khevan’s reflexes had been swift, accurate, and deadly.
Of Mara and the others there was now no sign. Nick assumed she had gotten past the corpses and into the grav lift. No shielding the children or Twilka from this set of dead men, unfortunately.
“Go!” Nick urged the D’nvannae. “I’ll hold them off if need be.”
Blaster at the ready, Khevan ste
pped into the grav lift and ascended, behind Mara and the others. Nick threw himself into the tube, slamming the access door closed in a smooth motion and firing his blaster to destroy the controls a second later. Let the looters spend their time trying to figure out how to haul their salvage some other way. Nick needed to keep this vital access clear for his own party to travel aboard the Nebula Dream. The Hold Level was now sealed, and the next time he had a chance to access the AI, he intended to make sure it stayed that way. No other exits would work for the renegade SMT officer, no matter what private access codes he had. He doubted the man had anything that could trump the SF access Nick himself held.
“Can he burn his way in here?” Khevan called from his position, floating upward a few yards ahead of Nick’s own progress.
“Not with his civilian popgun.” Nick shook his head. “What a mess, SMT crew looting their own ship, appropriating a lifeboat, who knows what else. We have to be careful and on guard the rest of our time on this damn ship.”
“Agreed,” Khevan answered solemnly from above him.
“You all okay?” Nick called anxiously up the tube to Mara.
“We’re fine.” Her words drifted to him. “But a bit shook up.”
“To be expected,” Nick answered with false good cheer. “That ugly encounter will probably be the worst thing we have to deal with from here on out. After all, we have the blasters now, and we’re on guard.”
“Call for rescue on your magic fastlink from the observatory, sit and wait, go home in style,” Khevan chimed in. “Easy as orbiting into a black hole, yes?”
Oh yeah. Nick floated smoothly toward Level A, leaving the sealed hold and the looters far below. Easy. Simple. Right! I don’t think.
But he kept his misgivings to himself, hoping against hope the D’nvannae was right.
CHAPTER SIX
Nick gathered them into a tight group at the Level A corridor to the casino. Edgy, hyper alert, he took nothing for granted after the encounter with the band of looters in the hold. Walking past corpses in the corridor was probably traumatic for the civilians, but Nick advised his companions to stay focused on the task at hand. “I’m sorry, but we have to go through here to get to the observatory.” He gave Twilka in particular a small smile. “I’m sure this isn’t your favorite part of the ship tonight.”
“It’s all right, you explained the whole thing. I get it, I get it. Can we please get the whole thing over with?” The Socialite motioned for Nick to continue toward the casino. “Please!”
Nick took point, the children in the center of the small group, Mara clutching her borrowed blaster and Twilka carrying Gianna, juggling the stuffed bear. Khevan brought up the rear, gaze sweeping the shadows unceasingly, alert for any threat. Icy chills ran down Nick’s spine, walking through what had been the most cheerful, noisy, and brightly lit part of the Nebula Dream before the crash, but now was a dead, dreary series of spooky chambers. Looming in the dark like nameless, abandoned idols in some long-forgotten tomb, the gaming tables and apparatus lay haphazardly.
The sound of breaking glass in the far reaches of the casino stopped them for a long second, but when there was no further indication of trouble, Nick moved on.
The closer he got to the observatory door, the more worried Nick became about what they might find, including the real possibility the clear hull over the observatory might have fractured. In that case, the blast doors would seal them off from his attempt to call for help with fastlink, making the situation dicey indeed. He had a backup plan – Special Forces teams always had an alternate strategy or two, but this one was so thin as to be nonexistent. Nick breathed a small prayer to the Lords of Space as he progressed closer to the moment of truth. Just grant me the break I need, that’s all I ask. Let me get these civilians – get Mara – out of here.
The observatory was on the far side of the Dream, away from the initial impact with the uncharted asteroids.
“Hey, we’ve been here before, remember?” Mara’s tone was cheerful as she walked through the holo slot machine bay. She gave a small tug at one of the levers as she walked by.
Can she read me well enough already to know how tense I am? He glanced over his shoulder at her, trying to assess her expression in the gloom.
Hulking and useless, the devices now sat immobile.
“I had good luck here the first evening.” Mara caught his eye, giving him a meaningful smile and a wink.
“Well, the slots turned stone cold after you left. Guess you must be my good luck charm, then?” He smiled at her with a rueful shake of the head.
A few steps further and Nick stopped at the closed door to the place he sought. “Here we are,” he said over his shoulder as he inspected the portal. It didn’t appear to be sealed, just normally shut, as it had been when he’d climbed the retro stairs to see the faux sky. “So far, so good. No sign of hull breach. Let’s hope we don’t find any other nasty surprises waiting.”
His fears were unfounded, but what he did find was a shock.
As he came cautiously up the retro staircase, Nick entered a deserted observatory, save for one familiar figure sitting on the same bench where he had last left her.
Lady Damais Niklaeson was still aboard the Nebula Dream.
Blue eyes glowing like beacons in the low ambient light, she swiveled on the bench to greet Nick. “I’m pleased to see you survived to this point.”
“I’m glad to find you alive and well, my lady, although distressed you weren’t able to get off in a lifeboat.” Nick was genuinely regretful on her behalf, even though the lifeboats weren’t much of an improvement over staying on the Dream.
Her whole attitude one of complete unconcern, Damais merely blinked. “I chose not to seek a lifeboat out. I’m an old woman. I’ve accomplished – for the most part – what I came to find on this voyage. No one waits for me on Mellure. So why should I take up limited space on a lifeboat?” Damais gazed beyond Nick to the staircase where the others clustered, waiting for some indication what he expected them to do next. “Who have you brought to this peaceful spot?”
Nick performed rapid introductions, ladies first. When he swung around to present Khevan, Damais reached out a fragile, blue-veined hand and took the Brother’s. Going to one knee in front of her, Khevan bowed his head in respect.
Barely touching his skin, Damais traced the tattoo on his cheek. The outline of the fierce tattoo glowed as her finger passed over it. Khevan flinched.
“You have seen them both, have you not? The Red Lady and her sister, the Lady in White, although you chose to serve Red.” Damais made a flat statement, but Nick thought he heard an odd hint of something faintly judgmental in her tone.
Perhaps Khevan heard the same thing. Raising his head, he met her stare calmly, but with the beginnings of a frown, brows knitting together. “I have seen them both, my lady. And made my choice, as you say.”
“To have such choice is rare, but not unknown.” She eyed him for another long minute. “Confident in your selection of loyalties, I see.” Damais seemed to lose interest, gazing past the four adults to where the children stood, waiting shyly by the stairs, silent. Nick felt a gentle query run through his mind as the elderly woman stared at him, placing her hand on his arm to establish private contact between them. Mentally, she asked and received what information she needed from him. A brief second later she was gazing at Paolo and Gianna with her glowing blue eyes.
Although neither child nor Lady Damais uttered a word, the boy and girl walked to her. Nick moved Mara and Twilka aside so the siblings could reach Damais without obstacle. Gianna climbed onto the Lady’s lap and snuggled in as if she was with her favorite, most-beloved grandmother, while Paolo sat on the bench and leaned against Damais trustingly. The Mellurean held him close, shutting her eyes and resting her wrinkled cheek on Gianna’s soft curls. The children closed their eyes as well, appearing content and safe within the circle of the elderly noblewoman’s fragile arms.
Nick drew the other three adults
toward the stairs. “You’d better not distract her.”
“What’s going on?” Hand on his arm, Mara stopped Nick a few feet away. “How does she know them? When did they ever meet before?” She eyed Nick sternly, waiting for her answer. “You know more than you’re sharing with me.”
Needing to steady his nerves, he took a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he had to fight off the events from his own past crowding in. “She’s giving them the Peace of Mellure.” Nick spoke to Mara, the words coming in stiff tones, holding pain he rarely chose to let himself think about. There was a physical pain in his chest, grief, old but treacherously potent.
She stepped closer, almost embracing him, her face concerned. “How do you know?”
“I was given the same gift, when I was about Paolo’s age, after the Mawreg attacked the colony where I was born. I watched from hiding as the Mawreg destroyed the place, killing and torturing anyone who hadn’t been well enough hidden, including my parents, my baby sister. My father ordered me – ordered me – not to stir from hiding, no matter what horrors I saw.” Nick bit his lip, getting a better grip on the blaster. I’m not talking about this anymore tonight. It was pure chance his hiding place was more secure than most of the hapless colonists’. “Eventually, the Star Guard came in and leveled the entire colony, taking out Mawreg and captives alike. I ended up at the Star Guard Orphanage, on Terra. The Mellurean consultants there do what Damais is doing now, for Paolo and Gianna.”
“Which is what?” Mara prompted, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
“The Mellureans take the horror and the pain away, partition it off. You have to keep access to some of it, or risk losing what makes you human.” How do you explain the inexplicable? I went through it, and even I don’t truly understand it. “They make it so you can hold the good memories without being overwhelmed by the bad ones.”
He shut his eyes again and half shook his head. Leaning against the bulkhead for a minute, he kneaded his left shoulder, which continued to ache abominably. Nick welcomed the physical pain as a distraction from the emotional variety. The former he could handle, could deal with. The latter scared him, even after all these years.
Wreck of the Nebula Dream Page 14