Star Survivor (The Sectors SF Romance Series Book 6)

by Veronica Scott

  “Stand down; it’s me.” Nick was bending over her, lifting her carefully into his arms. “Someone did a number on you, kid.”

  “We have to get her to the hospital,” Mara said, peering over his shoulder, face set in a worried expression.

  “No hospital.” She enunciated as clearly as she could, not moving her head after the first flare of pain. “Too many questions asked. Bad for my image to look so terrible in public. That was a joke, by the way.”

  “If you can crack jokes, you’ll live.” Nick carried her effortlessly to the waiting groundcar. “Compromise then. We have an excellent sickbay on our ship. We’ll get Casey to check you out and if he says you have to go to the hospital, no more arguments. You remember Casey?”

  The name pulled up memories. Everything connected with the night of the wreck was crystal in her mind, even now, injured as she was. “On the Space Dragon, yeah.”

  Mara slid into the back seat of the ground car and held out her arms to help get Twilka into the car with a minimum of jostling, as if she was a child. Nick gently deposited Twilka next to her, while the car dipped as another person climbed in on the other side. Whoever was in the driver’s seat gunned the engine as Nick shut the passenger door. He’d come with reinforcements.

  “What happened?” Mara asked, as she put her arm around Twilka.

  She laid her head on Mara’s comforting shoulder and closed her eyes, trying not to cry. “The Brotherhood caught up to us. They were going to kill me. The guy in charge, Harbin, didn’t like the way I talked about their Lady.” Twilka laughed despite the pain, as she remembered the horror on his face at her insulting words. “She is a bitch, though. No one knows better than me.”

  “I’ll be most curious why he didn’t carry out the contract,” said the passenger on the other side of Mara. Twilka didn’t recognize the voice and her eyes weren’t cooperating. “Unprecedented,” the man added, his voice deep, with a rasp.

  “You can ask her later.” Mara was firm, patting Twilka’s arm. “Save your strength, sweetie.”

  The ground car slid to a smooth halt. She didn’t remember anything of the drive through the city and onto the spaceport. I must have passed out.

  Nick carried her from the car to the Space Dragon in her berth at the spaceport, going straight to sickbay once he cleared the onramp. “I could get spoiled by this treatment, soldier,” she said, attempting another joke. “Maybe I should hire you to keep my feet from touching the ground ever again.”

  “I don’t think Mara would approve,” he said. “And I’d get bored, hate to tell you. No offense.”

  “None taken. I remember this place,” she said, as he laid her on the examining table in the Space Dragon’s sickbay. “You carried me in here the first time too.”

  “We’ve enhanced the fittings a bit. You don’t look so good, lady.” Red haired, big as a house, unforgettable Sgt. Casey approached her with a medscanner.

  “Nice to see you too,” she said. “Got anything to eat on this ship?”

  “Later.” He frowned. “Let me see what you’ve got going on in that head of yours first.” He made a pushing motion with his other arm. “If I could have room to work here, please.”

  “I’ll stay,” Mara told whoever else was crowding the space.

  “Call me if you need anything.” Nick bent over the table, coming into Twilka’s blurry field of vision. “You’re safe now; no one’s going to know you’re here with us until you give the word. And no one’s going to hurt you again, soldier’s oath. They’ll have to go through me first.”

  She held up her hand and he squeezed it carefully. “Thank you,” she whispered. Casey gave her an inject in the opposite arm and the world shrank to a pinpoint and went away.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Despite her anxiety for Khevan, it was the next day before she could stay awake and felt well enough to get dressed in clothing borrowed from Mara and attend an informal council of war in the Space Dragon’s dining hall. Nick brought her a mug of genuine coffee, setting it in front of her with a flourish and going to sit beside Mara, one arm casually looped over the back of her chair, rubbing his wife’s shoulder. “Glad you’ve regained your energy. You were pretty bedraggled when we brought you in.”

  “I think you must have an illegal rejuve resonator in your sickbay,” she said, sipping at the coffee. “I feel so much improved.”

  Nick and Mara exchanged glances, but neither confirmed nor denied her remark.

  “Hey, you had a great medic; admit it.” Casey laughed as he and Rafferty ambled into the room. “I can cook too.” He set a plate of scrambled eggs, hashed tubers, and two kinds of toast in front of Twilka before going to sit beside Raff.

  She realized she was starving and picked up her fork to sample the eggs.

  “I know you need to eat real food versus the nutrient packs we gave you last night, so take your time, but we’re eager to hear what happened,” Mara said.

  Twilka stared at the last person who arrived for the conversation. He had the unmistakable demeanor of a D’nvannae Brother, muscular, quiet as a cat, dressed in head to toe black leather, but exhibiting no scarlet tariqna tattoo or other sign of allegiance to the Lady. His long blond hair was caught in a casual ponytail, not braided or loose. She had to exert all her willpower not to shrink away from him as he took a chair, although he made no hostile move. “I’m sorry, I don’t know you,” she said, pointing her fork at him accusingly.

  “Where are my manners?” Nick spoke up promptly. “This is a special consultant I brought in, given the nature of your problem, as I understood the message. Twilka Zabour, meet Quaid Jacq, or as he’s more commonly known in our overlapping circles of business, the Renegade. Lucky for us, he was available.”

  Quaid bowed his head to her and shook her hand.

  Twilka studied him again, head to toe. Something wasn’t adding up. “I-I don’t understand. I thought you were a D’nvannae Brother, the way you carry yourself, the way you move…”

  “I am,” he said.

  She looked at Nick for reassurance. He nodded. “Highest ranking D’nvannae alive. But not to worry, he doesn’t serve the Lady any longer.”

  “She and I came to a parting of the ways,” Quaid said.

  “Then you’re not a Brother?” Her head was whirling and she didn’t appreciate the mystery Nick and this newcomer were presenting to her.

  “It suits us both to keep my name on the rolls of the order. I have access to certain resources, can exercise useful privileges without accepting orders or commands. I don’t report to the goddess, if you’re concerned. I’m free to pursue anything I find interesting, even if the matter puts me into direct opposition to her goals. Hence the Renegade nickname.”

  Still suspicious, Twilka spread lavender seedless whelgra jam on her toast. “What does she get out of it?”

  “I have something she wants and refuse to give to her. She can’t take it by force; she can’t find it anywhere else—we have a standoff.” He regarded her for a moment, brilliant blue eyes measuring. “You’re not the one to whom I must reveal this secret. It won’t help or hinder you.”

  “I don’t care about your secrets if they don’t concern Khevan.” Twilka rubbed her forehead. “I don’t really understand, but if you think he can help us, Nick, I’ll take your word for it.”

  “Okay, introductions over,” Mara said, not a hair out of place, taking charge as if she’d assembled the group for a routine business meeting. “Why don’t you fill us in on the situation, Twilka?”

  She swallowed her bite of toast, enjoying the tang of the jam. “First of all, thank you for coming. I should have said that earlier, I know. Khevan and I didn’t know what to do, where to turn when he got the kill contract on me, and realized the Lady herself had issued it.”

  “Yet he refused to honor it?” Quaid leaned forward, eyes narrowed.

  “Let her tell us in her own way,” Mara ordered.

  In between bites of egg and toast, with sips of coffe
e to wash the meal down, Twilka recited the events since the night Khevan had appeared in her hotel room, leaving out the lovemaking interlude in the second fleabag hotel. “And then today, when we left the robohotel to come meet you, the D’nvannae were waiting, jumped us. Khevan surrendered when he saw they were going to hurt me if he didn’t. Harbin confirmed this entire setup with the kill contract and the compliance squad was all about temple politics—the man’s a douche and he talks too much, but I guess he outmaneuvered Khevan pretty badly.”

  “Or for some reason, old times perhaps, you caused Khevan to make missteps,” Quaid said. “Starting with his refusal to kill you.”

  “Fair enough.” Twilka acknowledged the point.

  “And now we come to the point where I’m keenly interested to know how you prevented your own death at Harbin’s hands?”

  “Khevan said there was a previous protection contract still in effect and I couldn’t be killed.”

  “What proof did he offer?”

  Twilka fumbled in her pocket and withdrew the golden charm, holding it out in her hand. “This.”

  The others leaned closer to see. Mara gasped. “I remember that necklace! But he refused your contract offer. I was so angry you’d even tried to get his services exclusively…”

  “I wasn’t thinking clearly at that point,” Twilka said. “I would have asked him to help all of us, of course, but I wanted the security of his promise to me as a D’nvannae. I was so scared.”

  “Space dust under the jets now,” Nick said. “We all know how it turned out and each of us had our part to play.” He glanced at Rafferty and Casey, sitting quietly at the end of the table. “Including you guys.” Raff raised his coffee mug to acknowledge the remark.

  “And Harbin accepted this?” Quaid asked.

  “He did a test on it, there was a red spark when he ran the scanner over it and he was satisfied. He told me both contracts were terminated now.” Twilka replaced the charm in her pocket. “Honestly, I don’t know when Khevan took the token, maybe when we were descending the Dream’s gravlift together. I didn’t have a contract with him, to my knowledge.”

  “Apparently, the Brother believed he did, in his heart.” Quaid’s voice was firm. “From what I’ve heard here, you asked and he took payment. The fact you were unaware of the contract until yesterday is odd, but not a deal breaker.”

  “But the kill order is cancelled?” Mara asked.

  Twilka nodded, sipping her coffee, enjoying the warmth as the stimulant hit her system.

  “Harbin wouldn’t have left her alive otherwise.” Quaid sounded sure.

  “Dead in an alley with my throat cut,” she said, shivering at the realization of her close call. Maybe I’ll have a new nightmare now.

  “How did Khevan hide that token from the goddess, if he was a prisoner for a year or so?” Rafferty asked.

  Twilka shrugged. “Maybe no one searched his things? I don’t know—Khevan has his ways.”

  “The Lady wouldn’t care about his clothing or personal effects,” the Renegade said. “Not if she was as angry with him as you’ve said. She’d go straight for his mind, his soul, you might term it, in order to break him down and impose her will again. Then when he was reinstated, his quarters and possessions would have been returned to him as a matter of course. He stood high in the ranks.”

  “So the real question is, what do you want to do next?” Nick toyed with his empty coffee mug, making it spin on the table, and regarded Twilka with raised eyebrows.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your life isn’t in jeopardy any longer. We can drop you off at your hotel, you can pick up where you left off…”

  “Are you crazy?” She jumped from her chair as if ready to leave immediately. Dizziness assaulted her and she grabbed the top rim of the seat to steady herself. “We have to go help Khevan before the goddess kills him. I’m not leaving him in her hands. I’m not abandoning him.”

  “He walked away from you five years ago,” Mara said, drawing a pattern on the table with her spoon.

  “No. He explained what happened.” Twilka glanced from face to face, trying to convince them. “The Red Lady set a trap for him and then she kept him in a kind of mental prison for a year, trying to brainwash him.” She appealed to Quaid, placing her hand on his arm tentatively. “You must know—you were just talking about what she does.”

  “She has her ways of reclaiming errant Brothers,” he said. “Moving on to a more relevant issue today, it’s rare, although not impossible, for a man to leave the D’nvannae order. At the higher levels which Khevan achieved, separation is unheard of. Not without a special advantage, such as I hold, to force her hand and obtain his release. I only remain a D’nvannae named on the rolls by mutual agreement, and I can rescind my status any time. I can walk away. Someone like your Khevan wouldn’t have this option.”

  “Her sister, the White Lady, was going to help us after the wreck, or so we believed, but then he fell into the trap on Temple Home and we missed our chance to see her. Would she help him now?” Twilka asked Quaid, figuring he was her most likely source of information.

  Shaking his head, he said, “No. Extremely unlikely. You had an unusual window of opportunity after surviving the wreck, which closed when he made his choice to stay in the flames.”

  “The Red Lady forced him.”

  “He hasn’t asked us for help for himself,” Nick said. He raised a hand as Twilka opened her mouth to protest. “Merely pointing out a fact. That doesn’t mean I’m not willing to assume he needs it. I’m ready to go to Temple Home; you just say the word. But what makes you so sure he wants to leave the Brotherhood now?”

  She felt a tear slip down her cheek followed by another as she edged back into the chair. “He loves me. He stayed in the Brotherhood to save my life by convincing the Lady I meant nothing to him anymore. He promised me we’d find a way to escape the Red Lady together this time. He’s done serving her. He wants a life of his own, with me.”

  Mara left her chair, coming to hug Twilka. “We believe you. We’ll figure something out. Nick’s good at strategizing on the fly, you know that.” She shot Nick a look.

  “Find out if they’ve left the planet yet,” Nick said to Rafferty. As the captain left the mess, Nick eyed Quaid. “What’s the worst scenario here? Will she execute him?”

  “She prefers to think of it as permanently absorbing the Brother into the flames,” the Renegade said. “He’d be dead already if her anger was hot. She may be hoping to ensnare him again, might give him a chance to best Harbin, clean the slate as it were. Resume his place in tazlin with her. But if Khevan has decided to leave the Brotherhood and refuses her, she’ll either kill him or she could subject him to merdamier, a sort of test, a trial. It’s one of her few laws—any who requests to leave may try. I believe this ritual may be left over from whatever world her kind originated on. She clings to a few of her original tenets, regards them as unbreakable. Almost holy. Which is why Twilka survives today—because the Lady won’t break her word and if a contract is agreed to in her name by a sworn member of the Order, she honors it.”

  “How many succeed in walking away?” Mara asked shrewdly.

  Expressionless, Quaid raised his coffee mug. “None, to my knowledge, not in centuries.”

  Nick rolled his shoulders. “We need a plan. Can we break him out of the temple?”

  Quaid shook his head. “Unlikely, without the White Lady or the Mellureans on our side.”

  “No help from the latter,” Nick said, dashing Twilka’s hopes as quickly as they were raised. “I asked my contacts for advice or intervention when I first got Twilka’s message, and was politely declined. The Mellureans indicated things would work themselves out, which I guess the situation did, for Twilka anyway.” He shot her a glance.

  “I had no reason to expect them to step in on my behalf. They’ve got bigger issues to handle than my fate.” She made herself smile with an effort. “Even I’m not that conceited.”

/>   “I think the Mellureans and the two Ladies try not to step on each other’s toes, as much as possible,” Mara said, giving her a hug. “Or maybe their answer to Nick was a prophecy and they felt it was enough help. Receiving a Mellurean prophecy is a dream realized because, good or bad, they always come true.”

  Nick drummed his fingers on the table for a moment. “I owe Khevan and I gave my solemn oath to come to his aid at any time, although for a guy like me it’s easier if blasters and force are involved. This mystical stuff, the flames…” He shrugged and grinned. “Not my area, which is why I called Quaid in on this. I’m willing to accept Twilka’s word Khevan wants out of the Brotherhood. I vote we go to Temple Home and see what can be done. Who’s in?”

  “Of course,” Mara said, as if there couldn’t be any question.

  Casey cleared his throat. “We go where you need us, so I’ll speak for Rafferty and me. The Space Dragon is at your disposal.”

  Twilka studied Quaid’s expressionless face. “And you? If it’s a question of credits…”

  He held up his hand. “Nick hired me to help resolve the situation and as far as I can see, the job is only half done. I find myself taking an interest, sight unseen, in this Brother who wishes to extricate himself from the flames for a human woman. Consider me your ambassador to the Lady.” Addressing Nick, he said, “I’ll take my ship to Temple Home and see what I can find out. When you arrive, we’ll talk about the best course of action based on what I’ve learned.”

  “You’re sure a midnight extraction mission won’t work? You could give us the layout of the place, diagram the vulnerabilities.” Nick arched one eyebrow.

  “If only rescuing him were so easy. You’re the man to accomplish it. But I believe we want to end this without any more kill contracts, so a different approach will be needed.” The Renegade looked at each person at the table in turn. “I can’t predict right now what may be demanded of each of you, if we’re to bring this Khevan out of the Lady’s fire as a whole man. It may not be possible. It won’t be simple, but the challenge intrigues me. And I only take on the jobs guaranteed to relieve my boredom. I’ll see you when you arrive.” He bowed to Twilka and then to Mara and was gone.