by R. E. Vega
SOUL OF DEFIANCE
R.E. VEGA
Copyright © 2017 by R.E. Vega
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
1. Brax
2. Kaylin
3. Ulan
4. Dayna
5. Brax
6. Kaylin
7. Yuki
8. Kaylin
9. Brax
10. Dayna
11. Brax
12. Kaylin
13. Yuki
14. Dayna
15. Brax
16. Kaylin
17. Brax
18. Dayna
19. Ulan
20. Kaylin
21. Yuki
22. Brax
23. Dayna
24. Ulan
25. Yuki
26. Kaylin
27. Brax
28. Kaylin
29. Ulan
30. Dayna
31. Brax
32. Kaylin
33. Ulan
34. Dayna
35. Yuki
36. Ulan
37. Kaylin
38. Ulan
39. Dayna
40. Brax
41. Kaylin
42. Yuki
43. Kaylin
44. Ulan
45. Kaylin
Join the Resistance
BRAX
It was a shame—the colony of Castalia had once been one of his favorites.
Braxton Locke tried to suppress his disappointment as he stood at the top of Defiance’s gangway and surveyed the sad little scene before him. When they’d stopped here seven months ago, Castalia had been a lively place. Merchants from all over the galaxy lined the streets, peddling their exotic wares to those passing by. Music played on every corner—some delightful, some ear-splitting—and street performers tried to outdo each other with showy displays of acrobatics or sleight-of-hand tricks. Children and young women had often danced right in the streets—Brax had long thought Castalia had some of the most beautiful women in the galaxy—and humans mingled openly with immigrant A’lyph. Castalia also boasted some of the finest taverns at this end of the galaxy, and the lively drinking crowds often poured out into the streets, making the entire spaceport city feel like a festival no matter the time of year.
Times had changed.
The streets of Castalia appeared to be as bustling as ever, but there was little of the liveliness he’d enjoyed on their past visits. No music played. No street performers stood along the docking ports, hoping for a few coins from the new arrivals. No raucous laughter spilled from the taverns. He wondered if the taverns were open at all—he’d been looking forward to a pint of Alethian Ale at Andromeda Tavern for three months now. And if the bars were closed and the alcohol not flowing, it would be a lot more difficult to get the information he sought today.
“It’s worse than I thought.”
Brax looked up to find Captain Arleth had come to stand beside him. Her gray eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at the city before them, but otherwise her face remained blank. Captain Kaylin Arleth was the sort of women who, at first glance, had a sort of feminine sweetness about her—the kind that Brax generally found quite appealing in his women—but upon closer acquaintance, she proved harder and at times more vicious than any man he’d ever met. Most people took one look at her large eyes and large tits and underestimated her, but Brax had learned the truth about her quickly. There was a reason she was already captaining her own ship at the age of thirty-two—she was smart. And brutal.
Which is exactly why he trusted her.
“I’m not sure how much I’ll get out of anyone today,” Brax said, rubbing the stubble on his jaw. “If Castalia is this dead, then people are really afraid.”
“Just get what you can,” Captain Arleth said. “And try not to waste too much time whoring.”
“I’m insulted you think I still have to resort to paying for female company,” he said, his gaze dropping to the three officials who were coming up the gangway. Before anyone could leave the ship, they’d be subject to inspection by Castalian customs officers.
His frown deepened when he realized he didn’t recognize any of the officials approaching them. The last three times they’d docked here in Castalia, they’d been inspected by Officer Jeneva Kova, a woman he’d come to know quite well during one of those visits. The woman at the head of the group approaching them wasn’t nearly as attractive—and judging by the tightness of her mouth, she’d be much less susceptible to his charms. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised—Officer Kova had been installed under President Harcrow, and things were going to be very different under President Trousso’s rule—but his disappointment with the situation was mounting every minute. What was supposed to be an easy drop was looking riskier by the moment.
The new woman didn’t even bother with niceties when she reached them.
“Documents for all crewmembers and passengers,” she said, holding out a hand.
“Of course,” Brax replied cheerfully. Though he wasn’t captain of this vessel, he usually handled these sorts of interactions. He handed over their database tablet and glanced down at the name badge stitched onto the woman’s uniform. “Good afternoon, Officer Barrett.”
She didn’t even look up at him. Wrinkles formed at the corners of her mouth as she scrolled through the screen in her hands, looking through their documents.
Brax looked over at the other two officials. One was a man of middling years who looked as stern as Officer Barrett, but the other was a slightly younger woman. She was a sad looking thing—no tits at all—but perhaps he could use that to his advantage. The homely ones were always far easier to seduce.
“What is your business in Castalia?” Officer Barrett said without looking up from her study of their documents.
He smiled. “We’re a merchant vessel. We’ve delivering goods from Keres, Oenone, and the Fareon colony.”
Officer Barrett looked up sharply. “Communication with Oenone is forbidden under the new regime.”
“We purchased these goods six months ago, before the new laws were enacted,” he said casually. “And Oenoneon goods aren’t contraband.”
“Not yet,” Officer Barrett said.
“You’ll find the purchase date on the documentation,” he said.
Officer Barrett looked over at her two companions. “Inspect the cargo.”
They moved toward the crates of goods, and Brax’s stomach tightened. Officer Kova rarely gave their cargo more than a passing glance. He looked over at Captain Arleth, who gave him a subtle nod indicating that she could handle Officer Barrett. He followed the other two customs officials over to the ship’s cargo.
“Everything’s clearly marked,” he said, thrumming his fingers against the large official seal stamped on the nearest crate.
“We still need to scan them,” said the man, pulling a device shaped like a gun from his belt. The woman did as well.
Brax swallowed. They’d heard about these new scanning devices, but they’d yet to test their own technology against them. He leaned casually against one of the crates as the woman moved her scanner slowly up and down the side.
“If it would be easier, I can just open the crates for you,” Brax said. “We got a nice haul this time. Tell me—have you ever seen a kurkula fur stole before? They’re hard to come by these days. I bet one would look lovely on you.”
His comment hit its mark—the woman’s scanner paused briefly and her eyes flicked up to him before dropping back to her work.
>
“We also have some fine clothes from Keres—dresses made from genuine Keresi silkworms. Have you ever felt Keresi silk? It’s the softest thing I’ve ever felt—so far, at least. I can only imagine what it feels like against the skin of the beautiful woman wearing it.”
The woman’s cheeks colored slightly, and she looked up at him again. Her lips parted slightly, but before any words could come out, the device in her hand started beeping madly.
Shit.
The women immediately straightened, looking slightly flustered. “I… We need to look inside this crate, Sir.”
“Of course.” Brax prayed his concern wasn’t showing on his face as he typed in the code on the crate’s titanium lid. He resisted the urge to glance back at Officer Barrett to see her reaction.
Trust Thad’s handiwork, he told himself. Their engineer’s work was some of the best in the galaxy when it came to security. He might not have fooled these new scanning devices, but they had other securities in play.
He heard a footstep behind him as he carefully removed the lid from the crate.
“What is it?” came Officer Barrett’s voice.
“Code three forty-seven,” said the younger official.
“What does that mean?” Brax asked. “I assure you, everything we have aboard this ship is legal.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Officer Barrett said.
Brax risked a look at his captain as the three customs officials looked into the open crate. As usual, Captain Arleth’s expression was impassible, not betraying even a hint of concern.
The crate in question was full of the Keresi silks—dresses, scarves, robes, and bolts of raw fabric. The three officials pulled it all out piece by piece, then proceeded to poke and prod at all of the walls of the crate, looking for secret smuggling compartments. For ten long minutes, Brax bit his tongue, waiting for the worst.
Finally, Officer Barrett stepped back, a deep ridge between her bushy eyebrows.
“Damned scanners,” she muttered. “I told Yoreth they were still buggy.”
Relief rushed out of Brax. “I assure you, Officer, everything on board is—”
“Legal, yes—you’ve told me.” She didn’t look particularly pleased by this.
“Now, I’m sure you’re very busy, and as you can see—”
“I’ll decide when to leave,” she said. She looked between him and Captain Arleth. “Everything appears to be in order for now, but I suggest you make yourself familiar with the new trading laws before you return to Castalia. I suspect you won’t be in compliance next time.”
Brax suspected that by the next time they returned here, President Trousso would make mandatory floor-to-ceiling searches legal for all vessels docking at spaceports belonging to the Interplanetary Union—that would be most detrimental to their work. But for now, at least, luck was on their side.
“Your merchant visa is good for one week only,” Officer Barrett said. “If you’re here a day longer than that you’ll be deported and permanently barred from entering Castalia.”
“We understand, Officer,” Brax said with a dip of his head. “I assure you’ll we have nothing but the highest of respect for all of President Trousso’s new laws.”
Officer Barrett didn’t even dignify that with a response. With a jerk of her wrist, she called her subordinates to her and they all proceeded back down the gangway.
Only when they disappeared into the crowd on the docks did Brax feel like he could breathe again.
“That was too close,” he said.
“We’re fine,” Captain Arleth said. “Thad might be a pain in my neck, but he’s damn good at his job.” Her eyes shifted back to the streets below. “I suggest you head out as soon as possible and gather what intel you can. I don’t want to be here any longer than we have to.”
“Perhaps you should take a third with you to the pickup point,” he said quietly. “I know you can handle yourself, but given the current situation—”
“We’ll be fine. Any more might draw too much suspicion.” She turned back toward the hold. “We’ll leave at first light in the morning. Be back by then.”
“Understood.”
He didn’t give his captain another look. He raised the collar of his jacket and headed down the gangway, into the disconcertingly subdued crowd. He had work to do.
KAYLIN
That was too close.
Brax had said it himself more times than she cared to count. Not that she was about to let on that she had even a single shred of doubt that her crew would be able to carry out their mission this time.
There had been numerous close calls in the past, but her crew had always been able to pull something out of their hats at the last moment—some miracle always came about when it seemed circumstances were at their bleakest. And it wasn’t lost on her that Thad’s handiwork had saved her ass once again.
I’ll have to find a way to thank him for it later.
She shook her head, mostly to rid herself of her momentary lapse in focus. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of the little affair she found herself having with the engineer of her ship. No, there were plenty of reasons besides shame that kept her from revealing to her crew the arrangement she had with Thad.
Regardless of her reasons for hiding her relationship, there were more important things to be done at the moment. Without taking her eyes from the street below where her ship was docked, she flicked at the communication device on her belt, signaling for her first lieutenant to join her.
Her first officer, Daniel Brooks, strode beside her a moment later, scanning the street below much as she and Brax had just done. “Pretty quiet compared to last time we were here.”
Her jaw tightened at the thought of the events that had transpired during her last visit to Castalia.
“That Trousso, he really screwed us all—”
“I’m sure you’d do well to speak respectfully of our new president, Lieutenant Brooks. I’m sure you’ve heard about the new listening devices he’s having installed all over the Interplanetary Union.” She frowned, trying to push down the feeling of disgust that washed over her at even speaking the man’s name, let alone thinking about how he was now trying to control every aspect of life of the citizens of the IU.
President Douglas Trousso had made his fortune in trading, too, only his version had been on a much larger scale than that of Kaylin’s and her tiny merchant vessel. He hadn’t dabbled in smuggling contraband as she had chosen to do. His style of trading was more along the lines of bribing local officials to outlaw those provisions in the first place. He figured out how to corner the market on certain supplies, basically knocking out the competition for goods and services by making his competitors criminals.
It was brilliant, though certainly disgusting. But Trousso was playing on a much grander scale now. Not that there was anything Kaylin could do about it—not personally, anyway. But she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to do what was right, if not what was going to make her the most money.
Her crew deserved that much, at least. They’d stood by her through everything, even the incursion they suffered through three years ago, which nearly landed them all a starring role at the prison colony on Titania. If it hadn’t been for Brax and his golden tongue…
Yes, she thought. This last run is going to be worth the risk. Our biggest job with the biggest payout we’ve ever had. We may not be able to go back to Earth again—and who would want to with Trousso in charge now?—but we can at least each go buy a stake on one of the Dagon outposts. And who knows? Maybe we’ll make enough from this run to get past the border security at the Titan Belt, and we can be far enough away from Trousso to never have to worry about what his rule will mean for earth, or the galaxy, or for—
“Captain?” Brooks interrupted her thoughts, a line of concern forming between his eyebrows. “Is there something else I should know?”
It wasn’t like her to be so lost in thought, but this also wasn’t a typical job. The risks this time were
so much higher. If they failed this time, prison would likely be a happy alternative compared to where they would end up.
She kept her posture rigid, not even flinching at the realization that the knowledge she had would put her first officer in even more danger should he learn it. “No, Brooks. There’s nothing else you need to know.” She glanced over at him, not allowing herself to acknowledge the nagging feeling her in her gut she knew on some level was guilt. “Are you certain you’re prepared for this?”
He nodded. “How many times have I told you I’d follow you into a fire, Kaylin? I have followed you into a literal fire before, haven’t I?”
She gave him a curt nod, ignoring the fact he had called her by her given name. It was only fair, after all. Under normal circumstances, she would have never allowed for such informalities, especially at the start of such a delicate mission. But today? Today, that was the last thing that mattered. Today, she had to be prepared to lose a vital member of her crew, perhaps forever. And Brooks was the only person on board who had any idea of what the plan was. Even Brax had no idea the stakes of this mission.