Dr. Marcom looked me over, softly shaking his head. It had to be troublesome for him to be putting so much faith in a smuggler. As a people, we weren’t exactly known for our honesty. He smiled at me briefly and then turned to walk down the ramp. A step before he exited the ship he turned to face me.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Captain.”
I nodded. “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
The doctor left the ship, and I hit the button to close the hatch. “Ice, I’ll get us in the air. You start going over our packages.”
“Not feeling very trusting today, are you, Cap?” She asked as she set up a netting of wire mesh around all the boxes.
The last thing I saw her doing was hooking up the battery to the makeshift faraday cage. It wouldn’t stop all of the signals, but it would dampen them enough that when we hit FTL, they wouldn’t be able to get a fix on us.
It had been a long time since I took the controls of the Talon myself. Ice was three times the pilot that I was, and that was on one of my good days. So instead of messing with her command station I slipped into the copilot's seat and started running our bird through the preflight checkup. Everything looked good so I commed the Alliance.
“This is Captain Drake. We are ready to depart.”
“You are clear for departure, Captain Drake.”
The energy shield in front of us shimmered to life, and the cargobay doors opened. The shield kept the atmosphere in place but would let us exit into space. I smiled as I looked out on the stars that littered the black. It felt like home being out here. Something about the vastness of space soothed me. All we had to do was run a little bit faster, and there would always be somewhere to hide.
The ship was more sensitive than I remembered, but after a few seconds I had her lined up and headed through the shield. We cleared the ship, and I set us cruising while I watched our scans. I was more than a little surprised when the Alliance ship made the jump to FTL. I figured they would stay close trying to triangulate our jump coordinates.
I left us moving forward at a snail’s pace and ran back to the cargohold. “So what’s the word with our care packages?”
Ice looked up as she was scanning the last box. “You’re not going to believe this, Captain, but they’re clean.”
She was right, I didn’t believe it. The Alliance never gave you anything for free. I had joined the N.E.A. when I decided not to go into the family business. I loved it. I got to see the system and meet new people. The higher I moved inside of the military the more I saw the corruption that infested it. The N.E.A. wasn’t much better than a corporate lapdog now. It was one thing to be a merc, it was another to be a soldier that got farmed out to highest bidder. How many men had died to make some company a few more credits?
I piped into our internal system and went over the readouts Ice had fed it from the scanner. She was right, we were clean. I looked over the data again as Ice unhooked the battery and started to take down the wire mesh surrounding the crates.
Kyra and the Doc rushed in to grab their stash and started moving it back into the ship before I could protest. Maze stepped up behind me placing a calming hand on my shoulder as she leaned into me.
“It’ll be ok.”
“Maybe, but something about this doesn’t feel right.”
“The Alliance didn’t lock us up, nothing about that is right, but we know how corrupt the system is.”
I put my hand over hers for a moment and then stepped away. “Ice, get us into FTL.”
“Where to, Cap?”
“Anywhere but here.” She gave me a quizzical look. “Just far enough away to give us some time to go over the ship and then I want to crack this box open.”
“Ah, are you sure that’s a good idea, Captain?”
“I’m not delivering anything into Earth Republic space that could hurt people.”
“I’m on it,” Ice said running towards the controls.
She always had a soft spot for people. The fact that I wasn’t willing to risk innocent lives would have motivated her just a little bit more than normal. I felt us jump into FTL and then Ice was back in the cargobay with us. She moved up to the box and started to scan it. She worked all around the box and then looked up at me.
“There’s nothing special about the lock. I can open it whenever you want.”
“Gabe, how are the scans of my ship looking?”
“No bugs found yet, Captain.”
What in the hell was going on? No way the Alliance sent us off with their prized possession without trying to track us. No one would do that unless the package was the problem. Maybe it was a bomb meant for us or just something that would fry our systems. Space wasn’t exactly a friendly place when you didn’t have oxygen.
“Crack it!”
Ice moved her fingers over the lid of the box and stepped away. Fog started to pour over the edges as I moved forward to take the top entirely off. When my hands touched the box, it was cold, really damn cold. I slid on a pair of gloves and knocked the top to the ground. Fog rolled out of the case obscuring my vision.
Whatever was in the case had been frozen or locked into cryo sleep. Just what in the hell had we gotten ourselves into? The fog started to clear and I felt the air rush out of my lungs as I looked down into the box. Maze moved up beside me, and I heard her gasp. No one else moved as we both peered into the box. I looked back at Maze for confirmation that she was seeing the same thing I was and she gave me a quick nod. I didn’t want any fucking part of this. The smart money was on, putting the top back on the damn crate and delivering it as promised. Whatever the Alliance wanted this girl for, it wasn’t our fucking problem.
I went to grab the lid, and then I stopped. What if she was carrying some kind of virus? That would be just as bad as if we were carrying a bomb. I needed the Doc to come and give her a once over before we could make a real decision on what to do. Ice and Kyra would want to save her. Shit, the last thing I wanted to do was condemn her to some life she hadn’t chosen for herself, but I’d have to sit down and talk to her before deciding anything.
“Doc, I’m going to need your help over here. Bring a stretcher.”
He ran up from the medbay with a hover stretcher in tow. He moved it next to the box and then pulled out a scanner before leaning over the crate. “Oh, my,” he said as he took in her body.
That had been my first thought as well. She was naked as the day was long, it didn’t help that she was good looking. Once we got her out, we could get her covered up. I looked over at Maze, and she just nodded. Hey, it never hurt to double check with your girl before pulling a naked woman out of a box.
I reached in sliding my arms underneath her and started to lift her from the box. The woman screamed and pushed me back. She stood up in her full glory, looking down at all of us before springing out of the box. Instead of landing on the deck, she launched twenty feet above us and somehow clung to the top of the cargohold with her back. Her eyes roamed over us, searching for any potential threats. I knew those eyes, they were they eyes of a hunter. When she focused on me, I felt a sense of panic wash over me.
What in the hell was wrong with me? Aside from her being able to cling to the roof of my ship with her back, did I really have anything to fear from her? She was waiting to see what I would do. I kept my gaze fixed on her eyes. “Ah, hi,” I said giving her a weak little wave.
Maze hit me in the shoulder. “Really, Captain.”
The lady on my roof tracked her movements and focused her eyes on Maze. Something softened there, but when I moved her eyes went back on high alert. “Why don’t you come down from there? We can get you warmed up, and have the Doc look over you.”
“No, doctors,” she hissed.
The Doc moved away from the crate she had been in and kept his eyes firmly on the woman. “I’m not going to hurt you, in fact my only job is to make sure you are ok. If you’d like, one of the women can come with us.”
The woman’s eyes swiveled towards Maze
as she stepped around me to join the Doc. None of us had time to get any weapons out of the hold in our hurried jump to FTL. I didn’t want Maze going in there alone. She turned to me and placed a hand against my chest gently moving me away.
“All right, everyone not Maze or the Doc find somewhere else to be.”
“But, Captain?” Kyra said waving towards the woman on the roof.
“I’m sure we’ll have time for questions later.” I switched to a voice that was a little gruffer. “Move it.”
Gabe cast one last look at the roof and turned away. Ice did me a favor and took Kyra around the waist and started to leave. I turned and started to go, but looked back at the sound of feet hitting the deck. “Doc, if you need anything let me know.”
He gave me a reassuring smile. “I’m sure we will be fine, Captain.” He turned away from me to drape a blanket over the woman’s shoulders. “In fact, I’d appreciate it if you checked the crate for any of her personal effects. If you bring them to us in the lab, it might be helpful.”
As soon as the word lab left his lips, the woman jumped back, her eyes focused on Maze like it was all some kind of trick and we were going to attack her. Maze didn’t move, she just started whispering in a soothing voice.
“It will be ok. I promise.” Maze moved forwards and placed an arm around the woman’s shoulder and started to lead her towards the medbay. “We can even leave the door open.”
The Doc moved seamlessly in behind them, and I waited for them to turn the corner before looking in the crate. It was empty. There seemed to be something built into the side that would open, but it needed a code. I’d have Ice get to work on it, while I tried to figure out just what to do next. The last thing I expected to find in the crate was a girl. How could I just drop her off with some Alliance creeps on an Earth Republic world, and how could I not with the offer that was on the table? Just when you thought life couldn’t get any more interesting…
Epilogue
D’avin
Even in my sleep, I felt the ripple through the allspace. Something had just been unleashed upon the universe that shouldn’t exist. The comm by the side of my bunk started to beep, and I knew the feeling hadn’t been just another dream. Was it really possible that there was another one left in the multiverse, a true nosferatu? For all of my life and that of my father, and his father before him, the universe had been clean of their kind.
I hit the button to open up the comm line. “D’avin here.”
“Did you feel it?” A voice said almost husky in its need for confirmation.
“You know I did, Dal. We won’t know anything until we talk to the elders.”
“That’s another reason for my call. We’ve been summoned.”
“Jesus, brother. Do you know what this means?”
He laughed. “It means you need to get dressed.”
“Screw you,” I said cutting the comm. He knew what it meant. It was time for us to exercise our birthright. We would be the first in three generations to put our training to use hunting the abominations. Since I was a child, I always knew it would be us, that somehow Dal and I would save the world.
Launching from the bed, I found the robes of our order and tied them quickly about myself. I stepped out into the hallway and Dal was already there waiting for me. He adjusted my robes for a moment and then smiled brightly.
“On to our destiny, brother.”
I resisted the urge to hug him. “May your light shine ever brighter.” My older brother reached out and squeezed my shoulder. I felt the smile spreading on my lips. This was it, the moment we had waited our entire lives for. He fell into step beside me, and we walked to the chamber of the elders together.
Acknowledgments
I have a lot of people to thank. Writing can be a completely solitary endevour but without the help of other I’d never be able to do what I do.
A special thanks To Rebecca Frank for always killing my cover designs.
A big shout out to Laura Kingsley for keeping me on the right track.
Thank you Kay for finding the things we missed and putting the final proof on my work.
To the D’s for giving me good advice and always making themselves available to help.
Treats seem to be in order for my three furry writing partners, so I’ll get to those now.
I’d also like to thank my parents for never telling me that I was crazy for chasing this dream. I love you.
I also would be remiss if I didn’t thank the readers. Those of you that found me with this book and other who followed me over from The Ascendancy Legacy Series. Thank you so much for your support, it means the world to me.
Also by Bradford Bates
http://www.bradfordbates.com/books/
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Keep an eye out for Genetic Purge, book two in the Galactic Outlaws Series.
Forced Compliance (The Galactic Outlaws Book 1) Page 23