Wreck of the Nebula Dream

by Scott, Veronica

  Khevan nodded. Mara got a better grip on her blaster, staring at the casino beyond, apparently not willing to give even tentative consent to abandoning Nick.

  There was another series of loud, metallic bangs from the bridge overhead on the next level.

  Nick shepherded his group into the casino, eyes narrowed, doing his best to penetrate the gloom to find any danger before it found them. He took the point position, Mara in the middle. Lady Damais was leaning on her somewhat, but being careful not to block Mara’s blaster hand. Gianna clung to the Lady’s gleaming black skirts with one pudgy hand, bear’s paw firmly in the other.

  At the entrance, Nick kissed Mara on the cheek, before motioning them curtly to move out into the main corridor and head for the stairs as ordered while he moved quickly through the casino, heading for the clinic.

  There was no one else moving in the casino. Tripping, Nick almost fell across a dead body. Easton, the junior attendant from the gym. He didn’t bother to investigate the cause of death, but moved on as soon as he got his balance. Nothing I can do for him, poor bastard. Hearing voices ahead, Nick slid behind a gaming table lying on its side.

  “Don’t ever do a thing like that again,” said a woman, the sternness of her words belied by the light, high pitch.

  “I won’t, truly, Miss Twilka, but the captain needs these.” Paolo sounded contrite.

  Rising, Nick came out from behind the table.

  “Scared me to death!” Twilka shrieked, hand to her heart. “Don’t jump out at us, soldier!”

  “Hush, keep your voice down. We have pirates on board now,” Nick said, his own voice low. Grabbing her by the hand, he dragged her to the shelter of the big table, Paolo following.

  “Pirates?” The boy’s eyes grew huge, sparkling with excitement at this new twist. “Real pirates?” His voice scaled upward.

  “Not like in the adventure vids,” Nick said. “These pirates are alien, dangerous. I’ve sent the others ahead to grab a shuttle on Level Eight while I came to find you. It wasn’t a good idea to go off on your own, Paolo, although I appreciate the thought. Promise me you won’t do it again, trooper. It’s important.”

  Nodding contritely, he held out two injects, clasped tightly in his right hand. “But I found these for you. You said you needed them. Adrena – adrena –”

  “Adrenephix,” Nick supplied. “Well, yes, a shot would help, but –”

  “Hey, the kid did good, soldier. He got you what you wanted.” Twilka unexpectedly and somewhat heatedly admonished Nick, waving her finger in his face. “And the clinic was one hell of a mess, let me tell you. Someone had been there before us, probably a lot of someones, searching for drugs. Lucky we could find these, so the least you can do is shut up, use them, and let’s get out of here.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Nick smothered a laugh. “Let me see those, Paolo.”

  The boy handed them over. Nick checked first one, then the other, in the dim light. Adrenephix all right, both of them. It was nothing short of a miracle, although they were the pitiful lowdose civilian injects you could get in any pharmacy, lacking the various highly classified, active ingredients the military fastlink syndrome antidote also packed. Nick smiled as he slapped first one, then the other into his arm. He could take five of these and not get the effect of one military shot, but Twilka was right. Anything would help.

  “Thanks, trooper.” He dropped the second inject on the deck and kicked it aside, under the edge of the table. “Now, ready to make a run for the shuttle level?”

  They both nodded.

  “I wish I had a blaster,” Twilka said. “I wish I could use a blaster, like Mara does.”

  “Me, too,” Paolo agreed, eyes gleaming at the idea. “Maybe if there’d been more in the hold, we could have both had one, right, Captain?”

  They both sound about eight, child and grown woman alike. Grinning, Nick stood up, blaster at the ready. “Stay behind me, move fast, keep quiet, and we’ll be okay, I promise.” He led them toward the casino entrance, where he’d parted from the others so recently. Twilka took Paolo’s hand, whether for his reassurance or her own, and tried to mimic Nick’s smooth, silent progress with mixed success.

  At the entrance to the casino, Nick paused, reconnoitering in both directions. A faint haze hung in the corridor, but there was no sign of the pirates, no sound from the direction that led to the bridge access. Taking the lead, Nick crept along the bulkhead, working his way to the sweeping stairs to Level A.

  It’s going too smoothly. Deceptively easy. The back of his neck tingled, waiting for disaster.

  Suddenly, Nick heard the whine of a blaster from up ahead.

  “Stay here!” Keeping a low profile, Nick ran forward a few yards before taking cover behind the inevitable bank of ornamental plants. He discovered a team of three Shemdylann pirates on the landing. They had Khevan and the others pinned in an alcove one level further down. Several dead pirates lay at the foot of the sweeping staircase, testimony to Khevan’s marksmanship.

  Efficiently, Nick targeted the pirate at the end of the line and shot him, drilling neatly through the most vulnerable spot, in the center of the back, with one quick shot, moving on to kill the next alien in line as the first was toppling off the landing, falling in a crumpled heap below. The third pirate wheeled, weapon spewing fire. Snapping off a shot as the plant above his head ceased to exist, raining on him in a fine mist of singed ash, Nick dodged to the side. Rolling, he shot into the pirate’s face as the sentient ascended the last three stairs in a bound. The dead pirate fell forward, landing on top of him.

  Kicking his way free of the oozing corpse, getting to his feet, he checked how much blaster charge he had left. “All clear, Khevan!” he yelled at the others in the alcove.

  “Not quite, human,” said a sibilant voice from behind him. “Discard your weapon and place your hands on your head, or I’ll tear open the throat of this young one.”

  Dread a cold ball in his gut, Nick slowly turned, tossing his blaster away as ordered. Paolo dangled limply in the grasp of a Shemdylann officer, held easily in one massive, eight-clawed hand, the boy’s feet kicking futilely, a good yard above the deck. Twilka was held by another pirate, his huge hand covering her face so she could neither speak nor breathe, body convulsing as she slowly strangled.

  “Let them go, let her breathe,” Nick said, lacing his hands behind his head. “I surrender.”

  The pirate dropped Paolo, who crumpled on the deck. Nick made an involuntary move to help the boy, but was met by two pirates, who grabbed at his arms, throwing him to the deck. The other Shemdylann tossed Twilka aside like a doll. Drawing in a huge breath, she crawled to Paolo, wrapping him in a protective embrace.

  Walking past Nick, the pirate officer aimed a casual kick at his ribs with one clawed foot as he strode by. “The rest of you may as well surrender to me now, save me further trouble. Or I’ll kill this young one and the female. You can’t escape, don’t think it. My troops wait for you at the bottom of the stairs.”

  As their officer spoke to Khevan and his small party, the two pirates holding Nick were rapidly binding him hand and foot with wet, slimy, rope-like cords, extruded from a circular device one pirate took from his belt. The white cords tightened and dried in the air, leaving him immobilized. Paolo and Twilka were brought to kneel next to Nick, hands entwined behind their heads per the barked instructions of their captors.

  All too soon, a bound Khevan was thrown roughly to the deck next to Nick. Mara, Gianna, and Lady Damais came trudging up the stairs, prodded by four more of the hulking, menacing Shemdylann. Gianna still clutched her bear. When one pirate grabbed for it, Mara instinctively moved to snatch it away from him.

  “Leave her alone,” she said.

  The pirate from whom Mara had grabbed the bear, now left holding only the amputated ear, backhanded her savagely, knocking her head over heels, landing against the bulkhead with a thud.

  “No more!” The officer spoke to his crew member and to Mara
. “I will have absolute obedience, or the next sentient to disobey will die. This ship is so rich in plunder and slaves, one or two less won’t make a difference to the final tally. But I don’t want any damaged unnecessarily.”

  He exchanged rapid words with his second in command in their hissing language, then leaned over to strip first Nick, then Khevan of their wrist chronos. Handing these off to a waiting subordinate, the officer gestured to the women.

  “Your jewelry, all of it, now!”

  Twilka stared at him in stark disbelief. Mara hastily stripped off the small gold and pearl earrings she was wearing and offered them up. Two pirates grabbed at Twilka, tearing at the gold chains on her neck, strangling her in the process. Hastily Mara moved to help the younger woman, trying to unclasp the necklace while the pirate tugged on it.

  “Twilka, get those rings and earrings off before they rip your ears and fingers to get at them,” Nick said, earning himself another swift kick in the ribs from the guard.

  Half weeping, half gasping for breath, Twilka fell away from the pirate as her necklaces finally either unclasped or broke. Gold charms scattered on the deck. She and Mara hurriedly removed the rest of her jewelry, handing the pieces to the impatient pirates. Lady Damais imperiously proffered a fistful of jewelry.

  The officer snatched at her cane, examining it from end to end. “Elegant accessory, old one. But too much like a weapon for my taste.” Snapping the staff in half with no more effort than a human would expend breaking a small twig, he tossed the broken pieces away.

  Helpless, Nick and Khevan were picked up like sacks of grain, each slung over the shoulder of a hulking Shemdylann, all of whom stood well over eight feet high, and carried down the stairs toward Level A. The guards motioned curtly with their weapons for the women and children to follow. Mara and Paolo supported Lady Damais, who had a difficult time without her cane. A subdued Twilka brought up the end of the line, holding Gianna and the bedraggled bear. From time to time a guard shoved at the prisoners to make them walk faster, deriving enjoyment from their revulsion and terror.

  Once the pirates reached Level A, they proceeded to the galley area, where the officer had gone ahead, opening the door to a small, completely enclosed storage area. This pirate at least had some familiarity with human-designed vessels.

  As if the odds weren’t bad enough, the guy speaks Basic, and he’s got pretty complete command of the ship already. Nick closed his eyes and raged against the capricious Lords of Space – first giving hope they might actually live to be rescued, get off this damned ship, and then ripping that hope away, leaving them all helpless prisoners in the clawed red talons of the Shemdylann. Try as he might, Nick couldn’t summon up a plan for dealing with this setback, nothing to give them a chance, no matter how slender, to escape their eventual meeting with the Mawreg. Horror would follow for all of them, he knew.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The women and children were shoved roughly into the close quarters of the pantry and storage area next to the galley. Nick and Khevan, hands and feet tightly bound, were thrown on the deck, kicked more than a few times before the Shemdylann officer in charge called off his crew.

  “As soon as we get the interrogation apparatus set up, we’ll return for you,” he said to Nick, crouching low on his strong legs, yellow frilled neck ridge standing full out from his body in a sign of pleasure. “I’ll start with you, save the D’nvannae for later, for our enjoyment after warming up the torture device on your body and mind. We’ve never had the pleasure of breaking a D’nvannae before.” He threw a taunting gaze on Khevan.

  “You won’t have it now.” Khevan’s jaw was clenched, his eyes hot. The tattoo stood out on his cheek.

  “We shall see, indeed, we shall see.” The pirate captain aimed a final kick or two at the bound captives’ ribs before stalking out into the corridor, followed by his crew.

  The door banged shut. There was a brief flurry of noise outside as the pirates installed some kind of locking mechanism to the previously unlocked pantry.

  Mara and Twilka rushed to pull Nick and then Khevan to sitting positions, leaning them gently against the bulkhead. Lady Damais gathered the weeping children to her. They helped her hobble across the small room, to sit on some convenient fruit storage bins.

  Fumbling desperately with the cords restraining Nick’s wrists, Mara tried to undo the intricate knots.

  “Leave it,” he told her simply. “Mara, stop. You can’t affect those knots, not without a combat knife or a blaster.”

  “But we can’t sit here and wait –” She sank back on her heels, eyes shining with tears, face flushed, pushing her hair from her face.

  “Nick’s right. There’s nothing to be done.” Khevan’s face was set in stern lines. “They’ll torture us all, one by one, even the children, because such is the way of the Shemdylann. If you beg hard enough for your lives, they may spare the two of you, and the children, to sell as slaves in the Outlier Empire.”

  “No!” Mara stared at him in disbelief. “Not an option.”

  “It must be,” he said. “You’re a negotiator – you told us about your profession, so use your skill now on your own behalf, and for the sake of the children. It’s your only hope of life beyond this day. But for the captain and me, there’s no escape, even to slavery.”

  “There must be something.” Twilka switched her gaze from one man to the other, her face white. “I mean, she’s right, we have to do something here better than begging those reptiles to make us slaves.”

  “He has something he can do, something he must do, am I right?” Craning his head at an awkward angle, Khevan focused on Nick.

  Closing his eyes for a second, then reopening them to search for and focus on Mara’s face, Nick stared into her wide eyes hungrily, memorizing the emotion reflected there, the concern and caring for him. “Yeah,” he said reluctantly. “Yeah, you’re right.”

  “I’m already terrified and now you’re scaring me even more, if that’s possible. What’s he talking about, what do you have to do?” Mara’s voice shook as she stared from Nick to Khevan, all the color draining from her face, except for the large bruise rapidly purpling her left cheek where the pirate had slapped her.

  “Standing Order Number One for Sectors Special Forces operators.” Lady Damais recited regulations in a slightly singsong voice, surprising them all. “When irretrievably in the grasp of enemy forces, with no chance of escape or rescue, all such personnel are to commit suicide.”

  There was an odd silence in the wake of her pronouncement.

  Did she pull the regulation out of my memory? No sooner had the suspicion flickered across Nick’s mind than she added a postscript. “That’s what my son did, when he was trapped here in Sector Seventeen long ago.”

  Gianna reached up and tugged at her sleeve. Damais bent over the girl, murmuring reassurance, gently stroking her soft black hair.

  “Suicide? What’s she talking about?” Brow furrowed, Twilka obviously didn’t get it.

  Mara most emphatically did. Apparently she’d heard rumors about Standing Order Number One in the past. Eyes widening in disbelief, hand to her throat, she stared at Nick. “What kind of a heartless order is that?”

  “We can’t afford to let any intelligence about our systems, our codes, our operations, fall into enemy possession.” Nick leaned his head against the bulkhead, flexing his muscles to test the cords, knowing it was useless. But I have to try. “We have no choice. The Mawreg and their client races have only one goal we can determine, which is the total annihilation of humans, of any sentients not under their dominion.”

  Anguished sorrow on her beautiful face, Mara stroked his cheek. Tears were beginning to pool in her eyes. She shook her head slightly, in denial, but said nothing.

  “But you can’t kill yourself.” Twilka laughed, an eerie sound verging on pure hysteria. “They’ve got you tied up too well. And we’re certainly not going to murder you with our bare hands.” She held her soft white hands in front of
her face, made a small fist, and laughed again. “So just you rethink those orders.”

  “A guy like me, Special Forces, the suicide mechanism is internal,” Nick said. “She understands.” He nodded at Damais, who inclined her head slightly. “It’s a Mellurean mind implant, instant, painless.”

  “But then why would the pirates waste time torturing you, if they know you’ll kill yourself with some mental magic trick?” Not yet ready to accept what Nick was telling them so calmly, Twilka was still searching for some loophole.

  There were always loopholes in her well-cushioned world, ways to flout the rules. Nick eyed her for a moment. Not this time, girl.

  “They don’t realize he’s an operator,” Khevan answered before Nick could say a word. “I am D’nvannae – no one ever mistakes me for other than what I am. He wears nothing to mark him for what he is. The instant they find out –”

  “We have reports the Mawreg have ways to keep even one of my kind alive, for some length of time,” Nick said as Khevan took a breath. “And these pirates are a loyal Mawreg client race. They’ll send for Mawreg military presence the second they discover I’m an operator.”

  “But you can’t abandon us so easily, can you?” Lady Damais wasn’t truly asking, but declaring a truth held in Nick’s soul. “Despite these orders?”

  He shook his head. Gazing at Mara and then at Paolo, who was rubbing his reddened eyes, but gamely trying to comfort his sister, one chubby arm resting on her shoulder, Nick admitted his dilemma. “I can’t bring myself to take the easy way out, leave you – all of you – not while there’s any hope, however slight. But, hope’s in short supply right now.”