by M. R. Forbes
Whatever happened, he would be victorious in the end.
That promise had been made long ago.
47
Abbey was alone in the common area of the Faust when Bastion found her. A stack of wrappers for the simple rations Captain Mann had left them rested on the table in front of her, and she eagerly swallowed the last of her sixth bar. Or was it her seventh?
She didn’t know. What she did know was that she had never eaten like this in her life, and she was still feeling hungry.
“How do you stay so thin eating like that?” Bastion said.
“Frag off, Lucifer,” she replied.
He put up his hands. “Whoa. Sorry, Queenie. I’m not trying to offend. In fact, I was looking for you so that I could apologize.”
“For what?”
“For not following your orders. For the things I called you after it was over. My adrenaline got the best of me. Can I sit?”
He put his hand on the back of the chair across from her.
“It’s an open ship.”
“I wanted to apologize for Hell, too,” he said, sitting down. “For pushing you away from the food dispenser.”
“Whatever. It worked out in the end.”
“If you want to call it that. Anyway, I know you think I’m an asshole, and I can be, but I’m more of a part-time asshole. And if we’re going to be stuck on this ship together, I’d rather we find some common ground.”
She was going to give him another short, smart-ass response. She changed her mind. There was no reason to choke him with his olive branch.
“Okay,” she said. “Apology accepted. Can you do me a favor and grab me another bar?”
He laughed. “Seriously?”
“Yes. I’m starving. I don’t know why.”
Bastion stood again, retrieving two of the food bars. He handed one to her and kept the other.
“How long have you been a pilot?” Abbey asked. “Before Hell, I mean.”
“Eight years. Thirty-six live fire combat drops on twenty-two worlds.”
“Impressive.”
He shrugged. “It’s all instinct. Some people have more of it than others. Anyway, that came to a crashing halt when I decided it would be a good idea to assault Captain Mann.”
Abbey nearly spit her mouthful of food bar across the table.
“You did what?” she said.
“Yeah. He wanted to send my platoon into a hot zone. By hot, I mean hotter than Hell. I mean hotter than you.” He paused, waiting to see how she reacted to his statement.
“Save the strafing; you have to do a lot more than apologize and make lame passes if you want to interest me.”
“Like what?”
“Like finish the mission and help me get home to my daughter.”
“And then I would have a shot?”
“I don’t know. Would you still want one? I’m one of two right now, three if you count Ruby, which you can’t. When I’m one in a million? I’m high cost. High maintenance. And I have baggage.”
He laughed. “You’re human, too, it seems. I was starting to have my doubts.” He pointed at the torn bits of her softsuit. “That doesn’t help.”
“I didn’t ask for this. Packard was doing some kind of experiments down there. They put something in me, and this is the result.”
“I don’t know if I want to know. Anyway, Mann was sending me on what I thought was a suicide run. I didn’t want my friends killed, you know. I thought I could convince him it was a bad idea. When he wouldn’t listen, I got pissed, and I decked him. He didn’t fight back. He just let me beat him almost to death.”
“Captain Mann?” Abbey said, not believing it. Mann told her he was a trained killer. She didn’t believe he wouldn’t have destroyed Bastion if he had wanted to.
“Yeah. When he came to see me in prison, I was ready to do it all over again. He’s the reason I was in Hell.”
“You’re the reason you were in Hell.”
He shrugged. “Yeah. It was stupid, but I couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t eat. All I could think about were my teammates dying.” He paused again. “You know what the shittiest part is? They died anyway because I wasn’t there to fly them out. They died because I tried to save them.”
Abbey kept her eyes on Bastion’s face. The memory was upsetting to him, even now. Maybe he wasn’t as much of an asshole as she had thought.
“I’m sorry for that,” she said.
He smiled. “I guess we’re learning a little bit about one another, huh, Queenie? Maybe you won’t be so quick to choke me in the future?”
“Maybe you won’t be as much of a childish asshole, and I won’t have to.”
The ladder in the center of the room started to vibrate, cluing them in that someone was coming. Gant’s head poked up through the hole in the floor a moment later, his eyes narrowing when he saw Bastion.
“You,” he said, his hissing chitter loud enough to hurt her ears. “You stupid fragging son of a bitch.” He finished climbing, approaching Bastion with his teeth bared. “Look at my arm, you shithead.” He held up his arm. The fur was gone along the entire forearm down to his hand. “I told you to fragging wait a second.”
“Gant,” Abbey said. “Did you go to the medical bot?”
“Frag that. It isn’t that bad. That’s not that point. I told you to wait. You almost got me killed.”
“I saved everybody’s life,” Bastion said. “If we stayed on the ground, we were as good as dead.”
“I only needed a few seconds. I came this close to slamming into the containment unit.” He held his two thumbs only a few centimeters apart. “Do you know what would have happened?”
“No.”
“Imp. Boom!”
Bastion opened his mouth but didn’t speak.
“And, you called me a freak-monkey again. I told you I was going to break your face.” He jumped onto the table, getting to eye level with the pilot. “You want to let me, or you want to try to defend yourself?”
“Gant,” Abbey said.
“Stay out of it, Queenie,” Gant replied. “This asshole almost killed you.”
“Stay out of it?” Abbey hissed. “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?”
Gant froze in place. He turned his head, all of the anger suddenly draining from him.
“Sorry, Queenie,” he said. His lower lip was practically quivering. It was adorable. “I do want to break his face, though.”
“Nobody is breaking anybody’s face,” Abbey said. “I know you two don’t like one another. You both need to learn to deal with it. I don’t have the time or the energy for your bullshit.”
“I’m sorry, Gant,” Bastion said. “We had to leave when we did, or we were going to die. It was nothing personal. I appreciate that you fixed the Imp in mid-flight. That was pretty damn badass.”
Gant looked back at Bastion. “It was, wasn’t it? So was your flying. You got us out of there.”
“And we’re still here, now,” Abbey said. “Can we drop it?”
“Fine,” Gant said, holding a hand out to Bastion. Bastion took it.
“Fine,” he said.
“So, Queenie,” Gant said, turning around again. “I’ve spent the last few hours going through some of our equipment. I tripled the beam density of the laser pistol I picked up. I also increased the Imp’s maximum thrust twenty to thirty percent.”
“You’ve been busy,” Bastion said.
“I made you something, too.”
“You made me something?” Abbey said.
“I’m not coming onto you or anything,” Gant replied, jumping off the table. “Hold up one minute.” He went over to the ladder. “Pik, bring it up.”
“Coming,” Pik replied.
“Pik helped you?” Bastion said. “Fragging traitor.”
“I like Abbey,” Pik said, his head appearing in the opening.
“Thanks, Pik,” Abbey said.
“You’re welcome.”
He continued coming, his large fra
me barely clearing the opening. He was carrying what looked like a hellsuit in his right hand. It was way too small to be his.
“I took the liberty of pulling the synthetic musculature lining out of one of the softsuits and reattaching it inside your hellsuit,” Gant said. “I also added some tightpacks for storage and integrated the tactile touchpad. I’m working on an upgraded HUD that won’t require a full TCU and helmet, but it’s going to take me a few more hours. You can also wear it full-time since it has the waste filtration built-in. I’ve scrounged enough parts to build a makeshift washer that won’t short it out.”
Pik held the suit out to her. She smiled as she ran her hand along it.
“It’s okay with me if you want to change right here,” Bastion said.
“Remember what I said earlier?” Abbey said.
“Yeah.”
“That’s strike one.” She looked at Gant and Pik. “I’ll put this on after I get cleaned up. Thank you both.”
“Anytime, Boss,” Pik said.
Abbey took the suit. “I’m going to excuse myself and go shower and try this on. Pik, keep these two away from each other’s throats, will you?”
Pik smiled. “Of course, Boss.”
Abbey climbed the ladder from the central common area to the living area. She went into the cleansing station, quickly stripping the damaged softsuit and her underwear, looking at her naked reflection. She ran her hands over her stomach. There was no sign that she had ever been shot, save for a small bit of dried blood. She could feel the movement beneath her skin, tickling her and making her uncomfortable. She stared at the flesh to see if she could catch something actually shifting below the surface. Failing that, she let the shower cleanse the blood away, emerging fresh, her energy level returning. She pulled on the hellsuit, grateful to have the pressure against her skin once more, reducing the overwhelming feeling that she was infested with parasites, if not something worse.
She headed to her quarters to lie down. Airi wasn’t there. She had no idea where the soldier had gone. She laid flat, staring at the ceiling for a minute before closing her eyes. She gave herself twenty minutes before getting up again. She wasn’t tired. In fact, she felt more awake than ever.
She made her way down to the lower deck. Bastion, Gant, and Pik had cleared the common area by then, likely going their separate ways. She expected to find Gant in a dark corner, trying to calm his nerves. She didn’t. Somehow, they had managed to disperse out of her path. It hardly seemed possible on a ship the size of the Faust.
She went to the construct to sit in the darkness. She considered contacting her sister but came to the same conclusions she had with Hayley. If Liv believed she was dead, it was better that way, at least until she could go back home.
Would she ever be able to go home? Would she ever see Hayley again? For as much as she wanted to believe she would, the events on Orunel had made it feel as though she were back in Hell, rotting away. The Republic was in trouble. It seemed as though the Outworlds were, too, but she had no proof of that yet. Thraven’s Shrikes had attacked the Republic frigates and left the Outworld starships alone. Maybe he was operating independently of the Outworld Governance, but she doubted they would be complaining.
Either way, even if they did somehow manage to recover the Fire and the Brimstone, she had a feeling that would only be the beginning, a singular, early victory in conflict that had yet to truly arrive.
A conflict she didn’t want Hayley to grow up into.
Even if she did earn her freedom, would she take it?
48
Bastion was at the controls of the Faust when the ship came out of FTL, blinking back into regular space a thousand AU away from Drune’s orbit.
“Any sign of trouble?” Abbey asked from her position behind him.
“Negative,” Ruby replied. “Only four ships in orbit. All Outworld make. Untagged.”
She shifted her attention to the planet itself, grateful that they hadn’t stepped directly into a trap. Then again, that didn’t mean they weren’t coming in at one from the side.
“Is there a colony down there?” she said, noting the mottled brown of the planet.
“I told you Drune was a shithole,” Benhil said, listening in through his communicator. “No surface water. Hardly any rain. The H2O they do have gets pulled from the atmosphere, and even that’s barely enough to keep anyone alive down there. Skinks do okay because they hardly use water anyway.”
“Why would anyone come here?” Abbey said.
“Exactly the reason why I think Mamma Oissi was full of shit,” Benhil replied. “If there was someone who knew anything about this guy, Thraven, I don’t think he’d be here.”
“Why not?” Airi asked. “It’s easier to hide your scent in a pile of dung.”
“And more disgusting,” Gant said. “Nice simile though, Fury.”
She laughed in reply.
“Here’s how we do this,” Abbey said as Bastion began angling the starship toward the planet. “After we land, Jester and I will head over to the colony and take a look around. We’ll be posing as…”
“Arms dealers,” Benhil said.
“...Arms dealers,” she finished, feeling a little angry at the idea of posing as the very thing she had been sent to Hell for. “Gant, you’ll trail behind us. Keep your distance, but stay close enough to warn us if you spot anything out of the ordinary, or back us up if we get in trouble.”
“Yes, Queenie,” Gant said.
“Fury, you and Okay will hang back with the Faust. If Yalom tries to run, your job is to stop him. If we get into really deep shit, you’re the reinforcements.”
“You bet, Queenie,” Pik said.
“Lucifer, you’re on the hot seat. God help us if we need air support or a quick extraction, but you know what to do.”
“You’re sure you don’t want to take the Imp in and leave the Faust up here?” Bastion asked.
“Yes. If Thraven’s forces turn up again, I want to make a quick getaway, not have to waste time regrouping.”
“Roger,” Bastion replied.
They fell silent as the Faust broke through the atmosphere. The small settlement didn’t become visible until they were two kilometers from the surface, its position shrouded by a thick layer of dust that seemed to be a permanent fixture in the air. A single long transmission spike rose from within, climbing high above it.
“The dust is fragging up our sensors,” Bastion said. “I don’t like this, Queenie. If anything pops up in orbit, we won’t be able to see it to react.”
“They also won’t be able to see us on the ground,” Ruby said.
“We should go back, take the Imp.”
“It wouldn’t help,” Ruby said. “Communications will be difficult. If I sent you a warning, you might not receive it.”
“You’re kidding? We can talk across thousands of light years, but not through a little bit of dirt?”
“Different systems,” Gant said. “What works across the galaxy doesn’t work as well nearby. It would be like trying to stop a starship on a plate.”
“Damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” Benhil said. “You’re the Queen of the Damned, Queenie, so it should work out in our favor.”
“Let’s hope so,” Abbey replied, not bothering to take offense at the latest moniker.
The Faust shuddered as it entered the dirty air, chaotic currents challenging the stabilizers. Bastion got them through the mess, coming into slightly cleaner atmosphere a thousand meters from the ground. The colony was a few kilometers to the south, beyond a flat field of smaller rocks and sand where two other starships were already resting.
The Faust took roost nearby, the landing smooth and easy.
Abbey tapped Bastion on the shoulder. “Thanks for the ride,” she said. He responded with a thumbs up, and then she turned and fled toward the lower level where the exit hatch was located. The others were already waiting for her, and Pik held out a long hooded trenchcoat, a scarf, and a pair of goggles when
she reached them.
“Take this, too,” Gant said, holding up a smaller monocle. “The goggles will hold it in for now.”
“The HUD?” she asked.
“Yup. It’ll give you limited infrared, and it’s linked to your softsuit and the extenders if you need to hack anything.”
“You’re the best,” Abbey said, accepting it and putting it over her left eye. It added a slight grain to her vision, but it also outlined her team, showing their body heat.
“I know,” Gant replied. She could swear he was blushing.
She put on the goggles, scarf, and coat, raising the hood. She was covered from head to toe. So were the others.
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the rifle Benhil was carrying. “I don’t recognize it.”
“I modified a standard A70,” Gant said. “Gave it a little more oomph and changed the profile to help you sell the cover story. Most of the extra hardware is useless garbage, but it looks aggressive.”
“In case we need to demo our wares,” Benhil said.
“Are we ready?” Abbey asked, moving to the open hatch. A ramp extended from it, three meters to the ground.
“I’m ready, Boss,” Pik said.
“I’m ready,” Benhil said, joining her at the hatch.
“I’m ready, Queenie,” Gant said, tapping his laser pistol.
“Lucifer, stay alert. Fury, Okay, keep your ears open and be ready to move on my order.”
“Yes, Queenie,” they replied.
“Let’s do this, Rejects.”
49
Abbey moved down the ramp with Benhil beside her. They started crossing the open space, heading for the colony. It was barely visible from their position, a series of smaller round buildings and a few taller rectangles hidden in the dust. She was grateful for the scarf and goggles as the dirt pelted them, seemingly from everywhere.
It was half a kilometer to the outskirts of the colony, marked by a few ramshackle stalls where tired-looking Terrans sat on the ground, selling ugly jewelry and what looked like old military rations. They stared at Abbey and Benhil as they passed, leaving her wondering what else they might be looking to sell.