Atrophy

by Jess Anastasi

  She gave a short laugh and then pushed her hair back, avoiding his gaze. “Sorry, I was totally rambling then.”

  “It’s okay, I didn’t really notice.” Well, he had, but he actually thought it’d been kind of cute. Which was the dead last thing he should be thinking about a woman who had a psychopath for a brother. In fact, her just standing in the passageway outside his door made him antsy, since last time said psychopathic brother had found them alone, he’d ended that little meeting with a whole lot of bloodshed.

  She sent him a look that said she didn’t believe his words and didn’t intend on budging from his doorway any time soon.

  “Was there something else you wanted?” He stepped back and took the plate over to set it down on the table.

  She followed him in with slow steps, glancing around the bare room. “Actually, yes, there is.”

  He picked up a fork to keep his hands busy, not sure he wanted to eat. Between the threat of Rian and getting caught by the IPC, an appetite was hard to find. What if she told him her brother had changed his mind? What if Rian had already contacted the officers on Erebus, and they were on their way to take him back? He swallowed against the tightening in his guts and looked up as Zahli tapped the door controls, closing them in.

  Never mind the authorities hunting him down. Rian would stab him repeatedly and then space the tiny pieces of his hacked-up body if the captain knew he and Zahli were shut in this room alone. “Is that such a good idea? Your brother—”

  “My brother is exactly why I’m here.” Zahli came over and slid in behind the opposite side of the table to sit on the padded seat along the bulkhead.

  “So you want him to stab me again? Because last time he found us in a room together—”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Zahli waved a dismissive hand. “He’s preoccupied with some cargo we’re going to pick up.”

  “Okay,” he said slowly, moving to sit across from her, because he wasn’t sure he really believed they were safe. Plus, even if they did happen to avoid the hazard of Rian, his own over-active thoughts about her weren’t exactly doing this situation any favors. While parts of him—clearly moronic parts—liked the idea of spending time alone with her more than he had any right to, and would be indebted to her for the rest of his life, he really wanted her out of this room before Rian found another reason to maim him. “So what is this about?”

  She shifted forward in her seat, leaning over the table. “When you first came onboard yesterday morning, you said something about Rian being an assassin?”

  He stabbed his fork into some eggs, his hunger returning with a vengeance, since apparently this conversation had nothing to do with him or his tenuous freedom.

  “That’s what I heard, yeah.”

  Zahli clasped her hands tightly together on the table. “I need to hear all of it. Everything you know.”

  He shoveled some food into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully before he swallowed.

  “It wasn’t much, not any specific details. This prisoner came in about seven years ago. He got caught up in some raid when the IPC authorities were searching for a big time black-market trader. The guy was pissed because someone who’d also been picked up in the raid was an ex-military officer, and instead of sending him to Erebus, he got re-enlisted. After the war ended and the stories about Rian were plastered all over the place, this prisoner got all up in arms because he recognized Rian as the guy he’d been so pissed about. He had some theory that your brother had actually been undercover for the military, working as some kind of assassin. Apparently even then, Rian’s body count was legendary.”

  He clamped his mouth closed after that last bit, not thinking, until after the words came out, that maybe Zahli didn’t need to know her brother was possibly an infamous assassin.

  “It’s okay, I’ve experienced Rian’s abilities first-hand. There’s not much you could tell me that I’d be shocked by.”

  He nodded and dug into the cooling food while Zahli sat with her chin in her hand, expression preoccupied as though she was working through the information.

  “There’s got to be more to it,” she murmured, almost to herself as he scraped the last of the meal off his plate and then pushed it aside.

  “Something more than being a government assassin?” Seemed badass enough without needing to add anything else to the mix.

  “Yeah, because I know a little about what happened, but I don’t have the full picture and he won’t tell me. While government assassin kind of makes sense, it doesn’t fit in with what I already know.” She sighed, shoving her hair back and twisting it so it stayed behind her shoulders. “Rian wasn’t always like this. The war made him a completely different person. And he’s definitely not as bad now as he was when he first got home, but I still want to help him. And to do that, I need to know everything.”

  “I bet his military records are full of reports, but they’d be classified. If they exist at all.” Especially if the guy had been a high-ranking assassin, which, considering what he now personally knew of Sherron, made perfect sense.

  “Of course.” Zahli sat straighter in her seat, dark blue eyes sparking with anticipation. “You said you were some kind of super-hacker. Can you get his military records?”

  “Seriously?” He’d mentioned the records off-handedly, not as a hint that she needed to see them. “Zahli, I can’t hack into the IPC military.”

  For a second she looked deflated, but then she eyed him suspiciously. “Can’t, or won’t?”

  Crap. He’d never been a good liar, even after spending twelve years on Erebus. And Zahli’s stare was all but burning through him.

  “I am not going to hack the IPC military.” There, that was a definite answer without answering.

  He’d just gotten out of Erebus, he didn’t plan on doing anything that could land him back in there.

  Zahli leaned across the table again. “This is really important. I need those records.”

  He stood, turning away from her, since the way she was looking at him was chopping his insides to mush and making him want to fold like a cheap hull in heavy grav.

  “No, what you need is to stay off Erebus. In fact, it’d be great if everyone onboard this ship could stay off Erebus as a collective. If I tried and didn’t manage to cover my tracks, the authorities could trace the hack right back to this ship, and every single person onboard the Imojenna would end up on Erebus indefinitely.”

  He paced to the bed and tugged the sheets straight then arranged the blankets more neatly.

  “Tannin, I wouldn’t be asking unless it was really important. Like I’m talking life or death important. My life or death.”

  He straightened from lining up the pillows and dragged a hand through his hair. Goddamnit. He suspected that there were things going on under the surface on this ship about five minutes after he’d boarded. But he’d figured it was none of his business, and he’d be off again in a matter of two short rotations. He was content wallowing in his ignorant bliss. But now he had to wonder just what in the dark pits of hell had Rian gotten his sister into.

  Like when the officer had lured her alone back on Erebus, it seemed he couldn’t just walk away and ignore Zahli, even if it would end up being risky to his own safety. Because he could only imagine the kind of special torture Rian would inflict on him if the guy knew he’d hacked his sealed military records and handed them over to his sister. No doubt Rian had his reasons for not telling Zahli everything, and it probably started and ended with wanting to protect her. He was certainly starting to get intimately acquainted with that particular urge.

  He turned around to see her standing by the table, staring at him with too much hope gleaming in her eyes.

  “I’m not making any promises, but I’ll think about it.” The words pretty much came out of their own volition, because surely, if self-preservation had been in control of his mouth, he would have refused.

  “Thank you, Tannin. I didn’t want to have to use blackmail by reminding you w
ho helped you escape from Erebus.” She sent him a grin, making him think the blackmail thing hadn’t really been on the cards…maybe. Actually, considering who her brother was, a bit of blackmail might not have been all that unrealistic.

  “Well I’m glad I could spare your conscience of stooping to such levels,” he returned dryly.

  She gave a light laugh as she picked up the plate. “Got a sense of humor too, huh?”

  He shrugged as he followed her to the hatchway. “I always had a sense of humor, I just didn’t have much of a reason to use it the last twelve years.”

  At the doorway, they both reached for the control panel at the same time, their hands colliding. Zahli glanced up at him, and it wasn’t until that moment he realized how close to her he’d stopped. Only a scant few inches separated them, and the next half-breath he took in, he got nothing but that rain-storm scent of her.

  And damned if he didn’t notice that smattering of freckles across her nose again. He’d never given freckles much thought—some people had them and some people didn’t. But on Zahli, they made her that much more gorgeous.

  His lungs stalled as he realized exactly where his thoughts had taken him. Obviously he had a death wish. Because that would be the only result of wanting—even for half a second—Rian Sherron’s little sister. He quickly swiped the door open and took a large step back.

  “I’m just going to hang out here. I don’t think anyone will want to see me up there.”

  A frown marred her brow. “You can’t spend the next rotation and a half locked in this room. You just got out of prison. No one expects you to trade it for a different one.”

  He took another step back. “I think your brother might have a pretty strong opinion on that. Besides, I’ve got twelve years worth of movies, music, and media to catch up on. I’m pretty sure the viewer and subspace linkup will keep me entertained for the day.”

  She didn’t look very convinced, but stepped out into the corridor. “Okay, but at least come up for meals.”

  He sent her a half-smile. “I’ll think about that, too.”

  She nodded and waved then headed along the passageway toward the stairs. Tannin swiped the door closed and turned to survey the empty room, somehow seeming starker now that Zahli was no longer here.

  His gaze landed on the crystal screen in the desk, and his mind leaped into action. Truthfully, he didn’t know if he could hack the IPC military. Well, he could definitely hack it, but whether or not he could do it without leaving a trace and getting caught was the real question. But he’d spent a lot of time in the IPC systems on Erebus like a ghost, leaving no remnants. Maybe the military systems weren’t all that different. There was only one way to find out.

  Mind buzzing and fingers all but tingling at the anticipation of the challenge, he took a seat at the desk and tabbed up a subspace link, then plunged into the virtual reality of IPC data streams.

  Zahli poked at the food on her plate, even though Jensen had cooked it. And when it was Jensen’s turn to cook, no one refused to eat. The guy might be a genius when it came to engines, but he could just as easily have made a career as a chef on a first class luxury cruiser.

  She glanced at the galley hatchway for the millionth time. Tannin hadn’t come out of his cabin all day. She’d sent messages to the room at lunch time and again a few minutes ago, before everyone sat down at the large table in the middle of the common room. She could understand him feeling like an intruder, but going without food definitely wasn’t the answer to that problem.

  So she hurried through her meal and only half paid attention to the conversations going on around her, deciding that she would just have to take him a plate like she had at breakfast.

  Luckily, Rian ate faster than she did and disappeared across to his quarters, no doubt to follow up his meal with a few glasses of Violaine, like usual, and continue plotting his grand plans against the Reidar. Not that she thought he actually had any kind of grand plan in mind.

  It seemed like they spent more time avoiding the Reidar while Rian flew them around the galaxy searching for ways to link all the separate pieces of information he had about them. Maybe if her brother did have an actual plan in mind, besides the unfocused goal of total annihilation, they might gain some ground in what had become a never-ending game of cat and mouse.

  Putting her brother’s problems out of her mind, she took her dishes over to the galley bench and loaded up a clean plate of what little remained. It wasn’t much. Callan had already consumed three servings, which pretty much left scraps. But it was better than nothing, or worse, repli-rations. After grabbing some utensils, she left the chatter in the common room and made her way down to crew quarters, finding Tannin’s door still closed over.

  She knocked the same as she had earlier and waited. At least this time he was likely to be fully clothed and not send her brain flat-lining like it had this morning when she’d gotten a glimpse of his muscled chest and abdomen. Seriously, she didn’t know why it had affected her that way. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen a naked chest before. Occasionally she’d seen Callan and Jensen with no shirt, especially when it was hot or they were working out in the cargo bay.

  But she’d never all but had a stroke at the sight of a guy with his shirt half on the way she had over Tannin. And then her rambling. Frecking hell. If a section of the hull had given way and sucked her out, she would have been thankful, because she’d totally embarrassed herself and every self-respecting woman in the galaxy.

  The door slid open, but Tannin wasn’t standing on the other side. Curious, she stepped through to see him sitting at the table, concentration on the inset crystal screen. The hatchway closed behind her as she moved farther into the room.

  “Is your door malfunctioning or something?”

  He shook his head, not looking up at her as she walked over and set the plate down next to the screen that seemed to be running some indecipherable stream of numbers and letters.

  “No, I just opened and closed it from here instead of getting up.” He glanced at the food and then tugged the plate a bit closer. “Oh, thanks.”

  “I didn’t know you could open the doors from anywhere other than the door controls.” How had she been on this ship for four years and never been told that?

  “Well, technically you can’t, unless you know how to access the ship’s data streams and echelon systems.”

  She was about to ask him if he could do that, but realized the answer was obvious before the words even left her mouth.

  “Right. Because of your mad hacking skills. So what are you doing now?” She really hoped he hadn’t been messing around in the Imojenna’s systems, because Rian would blow a pressure hatch if he found out about it.

  Tannin leaned back in the chair and stretched his arms above his head, then sat forward to grab the plate.

  “Do you have a commpad?” he asked instead of answering her question.

  She sat to the side, pulled her device out of her pocket, and handed it over. Tannin secured it to the crystal screen and transferred information.

  “I found some of your brother’s military records. In return for what was no doubt the hacking equivalent of playing chicken with a landing battle-cruiser, don’t tell him they came from me.”

  He’d gotten the military records for her? Surprise and elated anticipation shot through her as she sat straighter and reached over to grab Tannin’s hand.

  “Thank you so much. And I promise, if he finds out, I’ll just tell him I hired someone to find them for me or something. He’ll never know it was you.”

  “Don’t get too excited. There’s not much in them, only the basic stuff you could probably find out anywhere. There are other reports, but they’re buried deep. It would take time I probably don’t have to access them. Even then, I don’t know if I could get to them without tripping some insane security measures.”

  She squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll take whatever you’ve got. It’s a start, and it’ll be more than I had be
fore.”

  His lips lifted in a half-smile, his fingers shifting to grip hers in return. And even though she’d taken his hand in excitement without thinking about it, now the warmth and sensation of his fingers twined with her traveled up her arm at hyper-speed and spread through the rest of her body on a low, swelling wave.

  She tugged her hand free, dropping her gaze to the commpad as it beeped. A grin flashed over Tannin’s lips as he handed the commpad to her then picked up his fork and dug into the food she’d brought him.

  Opening the new files, she found them listed in date order, from when Rian had joined the military to all the postings he’d taken over the years. She’d heard bits and pieces about most of them, particularly the eight months he’d spent on Minnea, cut off from supplies and barely surviving. But the report that most interested her was the last one before he went missing.

  After Minnea, Rian had risen enough in rank to get off the ground and found a posting onboard a medium-sized battle-cruiser called the Lone Cadence. He’d been serving on it for about six months when the entire vessel went missing, the crew presumed KIA, though no wreckage had ever been found.

  That was the point in time where Rian’s stories started getting hazy. All she knew was that somehow he was the only survivor and had been captured by the Reidar. Her guess was they’d tortured him. He never admitted or denied it; she’d pieced that together from his nightmares and random things he said every now and then.

  The military records listed Rian as presumed KIA with the rest of the crew, and then there was a gap of three years before he was re-commissioned on one of the outer waystations. He had returned to his old rank of lieutenant captain, but then quickly moved up the ranks, many of the entries marked as special assignment with redacted information and a reference number to what was obviously another file.

  The only full report was one of the final ones, the solo mission Rian had taken that had literally changed the course of the war and guaranteed the IPC’s victory. Zahli guessed the reason for its inclusion was because it was common knowledge.