Chuck glanced at me, the barrier, and me again. “Umm, can you . . . ? John must’ve forgotten.” He set the food on the bed and backed up to the open door.
“Sure.” I followed him out and stopped in front of the control panel. “Are you sure you don’t want to watch what I do? Just in case you need to know how?”
Chuck didn’t say anything, but he didn’t look away either. I showed him how to raise and lower the separator, as well as lengthen the chains so Loch could feed himself. “Understand?”
The kid nodded and ushered me back into the cell. “Thanks,” he whispered before he left.
“Making friends?” Loch asked.
“The mercs are holding the kid back. If I can help him, why wouldn’t I?”
“Why does anyone from a House do anything? For personal gain.”
He was not wrong, and it stung. I didn’t mind helping the kid, and in other circumstances I would’ve done the same. But in this case, the kid was between me and freedom and if I could win him to my side, it helped me.
But it took one manipulator to spot another, and Mr. Kissy McKissyface over there wasn’t off the hook. Kissing me was his own form of manipulation. I tried to win him to my side with food and conversation. He went with a more direct approach. And the hell of it was, it was working. He’d had the opportunity to hurt me, and because he didn’t, I found myself more willing to trust him. I needed to be careful or I’d be outmaneuvered and left behind.
I dumped the eggs and all but one slice of bacon on top of the oatmeal. It wasn’t super appetizing, but calories were calories and I doubted he’d complain about getting extra. I kept the waffles and remaining bacon slice.
“Reach out your hands as far as you can,” I said. I should’ve put the food on his side then released the chains, but I hadn’t been thinking.
He lifted his hands but made no effort to take the slack out of the chain.
“If you don’t want to eat, that’s cool, too.” I set the bowl down and picked up my slice of bacon. God, I loved bacon. I eyed his bowl.
“Hand it over.” He had stepped away from the wall and taken the slack out of the chain.
I gripped the very edge of the bowl. “No sudden moves, because if you startle me and I drop your bowl, that’s tough,” I warned. I passed the bowl to him without incident. He wolfed down the food. They definitely had been starving him.
“I don’t suppose you’d fill this with water?” he asked, holding out the bowl. His chains weren’t long enough to reach the sink. I carefully took it from him, rinsed out the residue, and handed it back full of water. He drained it. “Again?”
I saw the slack in the chain just before my hand moved into range. He was fast, but this time I was faster. I pulled back and he caught nothing but air. “I suppose that’s what I get for trying to be nice,” I muttered.
“Don’t be that way. You know you’d do the same if the situation was reversed.”
I finished my breakfast and set the tray aside. I sat cross-legged on the bed and closed my eyes. I needed to focus and plan. Meditation had never been about empty stillness for me; instead, it was when I did my best thinking.
I cleared my mind of everything except the problem: escape. This ship should have an escape vessel with a short-range FTL drive. New, modern warships with the fastest computers could jump several thousand light-years at a time. Ships like this Yamado frigate could jump several hundred, depending on how old the computers were. The escape ship could jump less than a hundred and probably closer to fifty. That plus the increased recharge time between jumps meant it could easily take a month to get back to a populated planet or station if you weren’t close to a gate.
Gates were essentially giant, specialized supercomputers. They could accurately plot safe jump endpoints millions of light-years away. Gates generally operated in sets of two or more, not because it was required, but because if you jumped a million light-years and didn’t have a gate to calculate your return trip, you were either stuck or you risked jumping with bad data. More than one ship had ended up in an asteroid in the early days of FTL drives.
To get a jump point, you entered the queue. Depending on the gate’s age and level of activity, it could take anywhere between hours and minutes to clear the queue, because the gate could only calculate a fixed number of jump points at once. Older gates were the slowest, but they were often in deserted sectors, so it balanced out.
Gates also worked as communication hubs, because they talked to each other via faster-than-light transmissions to calculate safe jump points around other ship traffic. FTL communication required vast amounts of energy and a very precise, very expensive setup, so most ’verse communication bounced through the gates rather than being sent directly with FTL transmissions.
We were several hundred light-years from the closest gate. The escape ship should have emergency supplies for fourteen people for four weeks, assuming they hadn’t been raided by the mercs. It was a glorified lifeboat, meant to hold the crew until their SOS reached a nearby ship. But for me, it was my ticket to freedom.
So, step one: verify the escape ship existed and was in working order.
Step two: convince Marcus Loch that we’d make better friends than enemies. It was hard to manipulate a manipulator, but I wasn’t the daughter of a High House for nothing. One thing I had to give my parents credit for: they raised all six of their children as if we were the direct heirs. We all had the same tutors, learned the same secrets, and honed our skills in the same Consortium ballrooms.
As the fifth child, I might be nothing more than a political pawn to be auctioned off to the man with the most to offer the House for my hand in marriage, but I’d learned everything required to be a von Hasenberg. Of course, my parents didn’t do it out of the kindness of their hearts—let’s not be crazy. They did it because I was expected to spy on my future husband’s business and personal life for them. After all, House von Hasenberg came first, even if I was sold to a man from a rival House or business.
And Father wondered why I fled.
I turned my thoughts back to escape. Step three: create a big enough distraction that Loch and I could make our way to the escape ship. My original thought was that Loch would be the distraction, but I wasn’t sure I could bring myself to condone killing ten people, even if I wasn’t the one pulling the trigger or holding the knife.
“You asleep, darling?”
“No,” I said without opening my eyes. “And my name is Ada.”
“You asleep, darling Ada?”
I cracked one eye open enough to scowl at him. “I’m rather busy plotting my escape. Did you need something?”
“You’re never going to escape just by sitting there,” he said.
“Of course not; I will escape through the ceiling. Or perhaps the wall, I haven’t quite decided because it depends on whether I decide to trust you.” I closed my eye and pretended to go back to my meditation.
“There is no way out through either of those.”
I made a noncommittal sound.
“I’ve spent more hours in these cells than you can imagine. There are no weak points, no way out except for the door.”
“If you say so,” I agreed easily. I waited.
It took longer than I expected, but finally he growled, “Where?”
I opened my eyes and met his stare. “I will tell you when I trust you.”
“Or you’re making shit up.”
I shrugged. “I could be. But I’m a von Hasenberg and this is a Yamado ship. We’re competitors, you know. I know as much about Yamado and Rockhurst ships as I do about our own. Maybe more.”
“How do I earn your trust?”
I smiled at the phrasing. He would’ve done well in a Consortium ballroom. So I gave him an honest answer in return. “Slowly,” I said. “But we may not have time for that. Captain Pearson sent our flight plan to my father before our first jump. Depending on how fast my father can free up ships and where they are, he’s likely to have an escort
waiting for us at the gate. If he received the message extremely quickly, it’s possible he’ll scramble a ship to meet us here, but that’s less likely.”
“And I suppose Albrecht von Hasenberg won’t miss the opportunity to bring in the Devil of Fornax Zero.”
“Not if he knows you’re on board. He’ll pay your bounty out of his own pocket, just to be the one to bring you to the Consortium. And there will be no escape from his ship.”
“You don’t know what I’m capable of, darling Ada,” he rumbled. His voice alone was dangerous. It vibrated over my skin like a caress. And every time he called me darling, my heart tried to do a little flip, even though I knew it wasn’t an endearment.
Yeah, I didn’t know what he was capable of, but I knew that he was trouble.
Chapter 3
Loch and I each spent the rest of the day lost in our own thoughts. I tried to talk to him a few times when I grew tired of thinking in circles, but he just grunted at me or answered with single syllables. Apparently the knowledge that my father’s fleet was en route had goaded him into moving up his own escape attempt and he had no time for idle chatter.
I ended up with two plans, one where Loch and I worked together, and one where we were adversaries. It was a fair guess that we’d both be going for the escape ship, so I had to either reach it first or make myself indispensable to its launch.
By the time Chuck came to retrieve me for dinner, I still wasn’t sure which plan was more likely to play out. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn’t notice that a third person had joined us for dinner until I was already halfway into the room.
“Hello, Gerald,” I said. “And I believe you are John, yes?” I asked the blond man who had dragged me back to my cell earlier. I smiled shyly. I kept the smile as he grinned lasciviously and bent to kiss the back of my hand, though I wanted nothing more than to smash a knee into his face.
His presence meant he was angling for the open commander position. He also changed the game and I subtly altered my persona. Mercs in general didn’t take well to superiors and this one in particular seemed to like his women meek and afraid.
Even so, dinner was trying. John sat across from me, thank heavens, so I didn’t have to ward off wandering hands. But his gaze rarely strayed above my breasts and all of his comments were so rife with innuendo that it could hardly even be called innuendo.
I kept my voice soft and my eyes down—though he never bothered to look that high—all while mentally plotting the most painful demise I could come up with. Feeding him alive to the lava worms of Centarii Delta Seven was currently in the lead.
When the proximity alarms started blaring I was in a dark enough mood to almost hope for a rogue asteroid. Or perhaps just a very carefully placed micrometeoroid that would find its way through the merc sitting across from me. I’d happily deal with the hull breach for hours if the universe would be so kind.
“Mayport, show me the outside cameras,” the captain barked. “And silence the damn alarms.”
The far wall lit up with video feeds from outside the ship. It wasn’t an asteroid—it was far worse. A Rockhurst battle cruiser filled the display. The designation marked it as one of House Rockhurst’s personal ships. Somehow, I didn’t think they were here to pay a social call.
“Incoming communication,” the ship’s computer intoned.
“Answer it,” the captain said before I could caution him against it or find a place to hide.
The video came up and Richard Rockhurst’s face came into focus. The fourth of five Rockhurst children, he was a handsome man with the trademark Rockhurst blond hair and blue eyes. At twenty-five he was only two years older than me, but he’d been in command of one of House Rockhurst’s most prominent ships for nearly six years.
The responsibility had hardened him, and the amusing young man I had played with as a child at Consortium events was nowhere to be found. Rumors of the ship’s more heinous problem-solving techniques were rampant, though no one had enough proof or enough power to officially charge him with criminal conduct.
His expression didn’t even flicker at my presence. He’d either known I was on board or gotten much better at hiding his thoughts. “Ah, Captain Pearson, I see the rumors are true. You have found and rescued my lovely betrothed. Hello, Lady von Hasenberg.”
I decided that quibbling about semantics would do me no favors. We weren’t technically betrothed, as he hadn’t asked and I hadn’t accepted, but it had been a long-standing assumption that one day we would be. I’d left before anything official was finalized. My escape had not improved the already strained relationship between our Houses.
I inclined my head a fraction. “Captain Rockhurst, I am glad to see you are well. As I am sure you are aware, my father has been notified about my rescue and subsequent travel plans.”
“Indeed, my lady, that’s why I’m here. Once he heard I was in the area, Lord von Hasenberg asked me to personally escort you home aboard the Santa Celestia. Of course, Captain Pearson, you will still receive the bounty for her rescue.”
If my father asked a Rockhurst to so much as take out his garbage, I’d eat my own boot. But neither of the two men sharing the dining room with me sensed anything was amiss. In fact, John was practically rubbing his hands together at the thought of getting paid earlier than expected.
What was Richard planning?
“Shall I begin preparations for a transport shuttle?” Richard Rockhurst asked.
“Of course, my lord. I will prepare our docking bay,” Gerald said.
“Thank you. And please keep Lady von Hasenberg a safe distance away. I know docking accidents are rare these days, but I won’t risk my future wife.”
Gerald was already nodding. “Yes, my lord, quite right. She’ll be perfectly safe here in my quarters until your party arrives.”
“Thank you, Captain. I will contact you once our transport shuttle is prepared.” The video screen went dark.
“How did you send word to my father?” I asked. “Was it encrypted?”
Gerald looked affronted. “Of course it was. I used the high-priority merchant encryption channels.”
The encryption on the merchant channels was as easy to break as wet tissue paper. All three Houses routinely monitored merchant traffic. Why, oh, why hadn’t he used the diplomatic channels? At least those took some effort to crack.
“We need to jump, and we need to do it right now,” I said.
“My lady, calm down. Rockhurst is going to return you to your family even quicker than I could,” Gerald said. “Besides, our FTL drive won’t be ready for another three days.”
“Rockhurst is not on your side. He’s not on my side. He’s a member of a rival House who just happened to show up in a battle cruiser exactly where you said you were taking me on the insecure merchant channels. Because you used the merchant channels, my father will be hustling ships out here, but since they’re not here yet, we’re on our own.”
“You’re overreacting, princess,” John said. “I’ve dealt with the Rockhursts before; you just don’t want to acknowledge when you’re beaten.”
“The Santa Celestia can hold two battalions of highly trained shock troopers with room to spare. It is routinely used to clean up messes that House Rockhurst wants swept under the rug. The only reason they haven’t blown us out of the sky, I’m guessing, is because they want me as a political hostage. The rest of you are collateral damage.”
Now even the captain was looking at me like I was crazy. “Mayport, prepare the docking bay for transport shuttle arrival.”
“Yes, Captain,” the ship’s computer replied. “Opening the docking bay port. Expected completion: ten minutes.” Merchant ships didn’t have landing bays, so they had to rely on older docking technology. And since a dock port was essentially a hole in the side of the ship, it was protected by heavy blast doors that had to be opened before ships could dock.
“John, why don’t you go find a couple men to meet the Rockhurst team. I don’t expect t
rouble,” the captain said with a glance at me, “but it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared. I’ll send word when the shuttle is on its way and will meet you in the docking bay.”
John looked like he wanted to protest, but he decided leaving was easier than arguing. The captain refused to listen to my warnings, so we sat in tense silence as the minutes ticked by.
“Docking port available,” the computer chimed.
I clenched my hands together and sat like a statue. This would be the one exception where I would appreciate my father’s interference, but the outside cameras showed the Rockhurst ship and nothing else. I had warned the captain and the mercs, so I no longer felt responsible for them. They had chosen their own path. Now I just needed to get myself off-ship as soon as possible.
It seemed like an age had passed when the computer finally said, “Incoming communication,” but it had probably only been fifteen minutes.
“Accept,” Gerald said.
Richard’s face once again filled the screen. “We’re all set over here, Captain Pearson, if you’re ready for us.”
“We’re ready, my lord.”
“Fantastic. I regret that I have to stay with the Santa Celestia, but I’m sending my second-in-command and my most trusted security agents to escort Lady von Hasenberg back, as well as my purser to settle our account.”
“Thank you, my lord. I will go meet them in the docking bay while Lady von Hasenberg rests here in comfort.”
Richard nodded curtly and the video ended.
“You won’t tell him that we locked you in a cell with Loch, will you?” the captain asked hesitantly.
“No,” I said. I didn’t plan to tell Richard anything because I didn’t plan to allow him to capture me.
Gerald looked relieved. “I’m going to lock you in, for your own safety, you understand. I’ll be back with your security escort.”
I nodded. Already I could see the transport shuttle breaking away from the Santa Celestia on the video monitor. I had precious little time to act, so I needed the captain to leave already. He finally did, locking the door behind him.
Polaris Rising Page 3