Crossfire (Star Kingdom Book 4)

by Lindsay Buroker

  “You have news?” Casmir perked up. “More than what’s on the public feeds?”

  “I have some. I got my own orders independent of Ishii’s.”

  “What are they?”

  “Not to escort the two civilian advisors into danger.”

  “Does that mean you’re supposed to go over there?” Casmir asked.

  Asger hesitated. “Why do I feel that nothing good is going to come of me sharing my orders with you?”

  “You shouldn’t have teased us with them if you didn’t want to share. That’s rude. Kim, isn’t that rude?”

  Her eyes were tight with worry, and she didn’t play along with him. Casmir, reminded that her colleague was in danger, affixed a more serious expression on his face.

  “My orders are to go ahead of the main incursion team, if at all possible, and get President Chronis to safety,” Asger said.

  Casmir pounced like a cat. “A mission that would surely be easier to accomplish if you had allies.”

  “Doubtful.”

  “How can you say that? You’re very fit and athletic, and you have a scary weapon and a voluminous cloak, but you’re just one man. Wouldn’t you like to have Zee along to help? And we could even take Tork. There shouldn’t be any conflict of interest for him on this mission. And while you all are fighting the bad guys—or, in this case, the indignant, angry freedom fighters—Kim and I can skulk in the shadows, hack into the computer system, and find out where the president is. And also where any important civilian scientists are.” Casmir almost added that maybe he and Kim could creatively find a way to make it unnecessary for Ishii’s marines to storm the station and drive fear and hatred into the residents. But Asger might not go for that. Better to focus on how they could achieve what they wanted while helping Asger achieve what he wanted. A win for all.

  “I knew I shouldn’t have told you,” Asger said. “You’re already scheming.”

  “Schemily,” Kim murmured.

  “I’m simply being logical,” Casmir said. “You need to do something in the station. We need to do something in the station. Clearly, we should carpool, work together, and help each other.”

  “Carpool. Right.” Asger shook his head. “I ought to—”

  The door opened, and a gray-haired man in a gray civilian galaxy suit and fur-trimmed robe walked out of Ishii’s office.

  Asger bowed. “Ambassador Romano.”

  “Sir Knight.” The man—Romano—frowned at Casmir and Kim.

  Casmir imitated Asger’s bow, in case the lack of appropriate deference was a problem. Kim frowned, but she also managed a curt bow.

  As the ambassador strode toward the lift, Ishii leaned out of the office and pointed at the empty bulkhead. “Do you see a sign that says briefing room?”

  “No, Captain,” Asger said.

  Casmir considered commenting, but Kim elbowed him and gave him a warning look. Casmir shut his mouth and wondered how someone who claimed to be bad at reading people had a telepathic gauge on his brain. He also wondered if Ishii and the ambassador—where had he been lurking the whole trip?—had heard them talking in the corridor.

  “Get in here,” Ishii growled and stalked into his office.

  Casmir gestured for Asger to go first. Asger shot him a dirty look, as if he was being invited to walk first across a mine field. Casmir followed him, and when Kim and Zee entered, the space in front of Ishii’s desk grew quite crowded.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Ishii said preemptively, then frowned at Asger when he opened his mouth. “Any of you.”

  “I have orders to protect President Chronis.” Asger pointed at the chip in his temple. “I’ll transmit them to you.”

  “You can transmit them into a toilet. My marines are going in to deal with the uprising, as they’re trained to do, and they’ll find and protect the president. He’s a Kingdom ally now and has appealed to us for help. We’ll ensure he’s not harmed.”

  “Your marines lack the subtlety of a knight.”

  “I’ve seen your calendar. You’re as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face.”

  “That’s not quite how women describe me,” Asger murmured.

  Ishii rolled his eyes, then looked at Kim and Casmir. “I don’t know why you two are even up here, but you’re definitely not leaving the ship. This has nothing to do with you. You’re here for the gate, which we will retrieve as soon as we finish up here. Ideally, we’ll acquire some submarines here to further assist us with that.” Ishii looked at a tablet on his desk, a map of the station visible on the display. “Maybe the president will be so grateful that we’ve saved him that he’ll arrange for a hefty discount.”

  Casmir looked at Kim. They hadn’t had a chance to decide which of them was going to do the talking.

  She took a deep breath. “Captain, I received a message from a colleague, a scientist and researcher who works for my corporation, and he’s stuck in the chaos. He requested that I help him get himself and his freezers full of samples and research material off the station and to somewhere safe.”

  “Why would you be able to help him with that?” Ishii asked.

  “I’m not sure why he thought that. He was desperate and likely felt he didn’t have any other options. He implied they’re taking hostages there or that they might. Further, he mentioned a princess there from Shango Habitat, and that she might also need sanctuary.”

  Casmir had forgotten about that. He had no idea who the princess was, but the name of the habitat was familiar for some reason. Simply because he’d learned the name back when he’d been a kid in school, encouraged to memorize the geography of the various systems? No, it had come up more recently. Oh, now he remembered. Princess Oku had mentioned it.

  “That’s the habitat that Princess Oku just got some dead bees back from.” Casmir blinked, realizing this might be used to sway Ishii. “Captain, if that princess is from Shango Habitat, it’s likely that Princess Oku has a relationship with her. At the least, the princess—er, our princess—has been doing humanitarian work there. I assume that’s what you would call it. She might consider it a personal favor if you were to rescue her friend.”

  Casmir smiled, knowing he was making a lot of assumptions. It was entirely possible that Oku was working with some random gardener on Shango Habitat and didn’t know the royal family there at all. That seemed unlikely though. She ought to have at least passing familiarity with them if she was sending bees to their station.

  “Bees?” Ishii gave Asger an is-he-pulling-my-leg look.

  “Oh.” Asger scratched his head. “I do remember Oku mentioning that habitat. But it’s not even in this system.” His forehead furrowed as he looked at Casmir.

  Casmir shrugged. “I imagine people travel great distances to acquire biological materials from Parvus Biologia.”

  “That is true,” Kim put in quietly. “We fill a unique medical niche and can sometimes provide solutions to people who aren’t interested in genetic modifications, or problems that can’t be solved with them.”

  “This conversation doesn’t make any sense to me,” Ishii said. “The princess is a flower-picking dilettante who cavorts around the system on the Kingdom’s tax money.”

  Casmir exchanged frowns with Asger, tempted to correct Ishii, since he now knew better. And he knew Asger also knew better. But Asger kept his mouth shut. He was in danger of not being able to obey his orders if Ishii didn’t let him leave.

  “Whether her interests are flowers or bees or both,” Casmir said, “the very fact that she’s well-traveled implies that she has relationships with the various royal and leading families around the Twelve Systems. For all we simple peons know, Shango Habitat may be cultivating an alliance with Tiamat Station, which we know is trying to cultivate an alliance with the Kingdom. Rescuing this princess could win you a medal, Sora.” Casmir smiled cheerfully at Ishii.

  Ishii looked like he was about to start sputtering again. Kim shook her head.

  “Why does talking with you always give
me a headache, Dabrowski?” Ishii asked. “Is it because my blood pressure skyrockets whenever you’re in the room?” He looked at Kim.

  “A mild blood pressure increase rarely causes symptoms,” Kim said. “It’s possible you’re having a hypertensive crisis, in which case you should see your doctor as soon as possible.”

  “I think it’ll go away as soon as Dabrowski leaves my office.” Ishii focused solely on Casmir. “Why are you even here? Asger has some orders he’s going to show me, and Scholar Sato has a colleague in trouble, but you don’t have an air bike in the race, as far as I can tell. Did you just come along to vex me?”

  “I don’t want to vex you, Sora. I’m quite tickled with you these days, ever since you gave me a bed.” Casmir offered his most winning smile, though he felt like he was scrambling to stay above the surface in a quagmire of quicksand. “I’m just here to help my friends, if I can.” He spread his hands toward Asger and Kim.

  Ishii looked toward the ceiling, as if seeking guidance from some god lurking among the stars. “Yes, I see your file, Asger. All this says is that you are to make sure President Chronis is still alive after our warships have taken over the station.”

  “It specifically orders me to find him early and guard him while you’re taking over the station, so that nobody tries to make a hostage out of him as soon as your marines deploy.”

  “Are you going to go whether I forbid it or not?” Ishii was still looking at the ceiling.

  Asger sighed. “I can’t screw up again, Ishii. I can’t fail at a mission I’ve been assigned.”

  “Aren’t you already on a mission to protect Dabrowski and help us find the gate?”

  “Yes, but I have been, the same as you, diverted to deal with this new crisis because I’m the only knight in the area. Just as you command the only Kingdom warships in this system.”

  “Are you going to take them with you when you stealthily sneak off my ship against my wishes?” Ishii waved at Casmir and Kim.

  This was a strange way of giving permission, but Casmir held his breath, hoping Ishii was getting around to it.

  “I was planning to go without them, as I’m sure they’ll be significantly safer here—” Asger looked sternly at Casmir and Kim, “—but Casmir does have some points worth considering. If this scientist is anywhere near as talented as Kim, we should make sure to get him out. Maybe he’d feel grateful to the Kingdom and want to expatriate.”

  Kim’s eyebrow twitched ever so slightly, but she didn’t reject the idea aloud.

  “And if the princess is a friend of Princess Oku’s, then she may look favorably upon us rescuing her as well.” Asger’s eyes grew wistful, and Casmir hid a grimace, reminded that Asger had a crush on Oku. If he ever found out that Casmir was trying to… help her with her bees, he might not be pleased.

  “Oku’s favor isn’t going to advance your career or anything that isn’t in your pants,” Ishii growled, apparently interpreting Asger’s wistful look correctly. “She has nothing to do with politics or the military or with ruling the Kingdom at all.”

  Asger’s face reddened, and he leaned forward, either to protest or to spring across the desk to throttle Ishii.

  But Ishii lifted a hand and headed him off. “Nonetheless, I agree that royalty, even royalty from different nations, should be protected, and that there might be unforeseen consequences if she were to die in some accidental violence during an incursion.”

  What the hell was accidental violence? If Ishii sent his marines in, Casmir was certain any violence perpetrated would be very purposeful.

  “Are you giving me permission to go?” Asger asked stiffly.

  “No.”

  Asger’s fingers curled into fists.

  “But I’m not forbidding you to go. As far as my record is going to show, we never had this meeting.”

  Asger hesitated, then nodded curtly. “I understand.”

  Casmir wasn’t sure he did, but when Asger turned for the door and Ishii flicked his fingers for Casmir and Kim to follow, he walked out after Asger.

  When they were all in the corridor again, the door shutting behind Zee, Asger said, “I can’t outpace the Osprey in my shuttle, but as soon as we reach the station, I’m going to fly over and attempt to get permission to dock.”

  “And are you taking us? Your steadfast and useful allies.” Casmir pointed at Zee rather than himself, gesturing to indicate his height and brawn.

  Asger snorted. “So long as you understand what Ishii just implied.”

  “That he’s not responsible for what you or we do?”

  “More than that. I think he was implying that he’ll claim he had no knowledge of what we’re planning to do, should we get ourselves and the Kingdom in trouble. I don’t know what he and Ambassador Romano were talking about—I thought Romano was just along to smooth ruffled feathers as we flew through other nations’ territories on our quest for the gate—but he reports directly to the king, so Ishii essentially has Jager’s eyes watching him out here.”

  “We won’t get in trouble,” Casmir said firmly. “We’ll help you, we’ll help Kim’s friend, and we’ll help the princess’s possible acquaintance.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Asger looked more worried than reassured as he walked away.

  15

  “Does anyone want to hear my ideas?” Casmir asked as Asger piloted his sleek purple shuttle through the open bay doors and toward the stars outside.

  Kim smiled at his enthusiastic tone, but she was worried because she hadn’t been able to reestablish contact with Scholar Chi. The night before, and again that morning, she’d tried to comm him to let him know they were coming. She’d also commed the general office contact code for the lab, but nobody had responded to that either. Over the last day and night, there had been a dearth of news updates from the reporter who’d earlier been transmitting coverage of the skirmishes from inside the station.

  “Ideas?” Asger asked when Kim didn’t say anything. “How many are there?”

  “Specific to our rescue mission? Uhm.” Casmir’s eyes shifted upward as he counted. “Thirteen.”

  “Is that all?” Asger murmured.

  “I didn’t want to assume we would do things my way, so I brainstormed a few options for us to consider as a group.”

  “A few as in thirteen?”

  “Yes. I had twenty, but I narrowed it down. It looks like it’ll only take us a half hour to reach the station, so I thought brevity would be important. Especially since you didn’t answer your comm when I messaged you a few hours ago.”

  “Because I was sleeping. It was the middle of the night.”

  “I was too excited to sleep. Also, my roommates were feeling chatty.”

  “Your… roommates?” Asger twisted in his pod to peer at Tork and Zee, both of whom Casmir had brought along. They were floating and gripping handholds rather than sitting. “They chat?”

  “They’re gradually getting over their natural distrust and aversion toward each other. Last night, they were competing at network games. I believe most of their communication was silent, but occasionally they asked me for input when emotional human reactions played into the games.”

  “You’re the strangest ally I’ve ever had, Casmir.”

  “They were the ones playing the games, but I don’t mind being considered strange.” His expression grew more sober, and he bowed in his seat. He was looking surprisingly perky, given the lack of gravity in the shuttle and his known nausea issues. Had he taken some medley of space-sickness medications to achieve the effect? “I’m honored you consider me an ally now.”

  “Let’s hear your ideas.”

  Casmir beamed a smile at Kim, then responded seriously. “Some of this will depend on how they react to us. Who has the upper hand over there right now? I wasn’t able to find out via the public feeds, and Kim said her colleague has gone comm silent. So we don’t know. If the Kingdom-friendly president and his people are in charge, they should welcome a knight and be pleased to in
vite you to dock, and they should be heartened to see all of these warships stopping at their front door.”

  Casmir leaned forward to gesture at two of the four warships that were visible on their forward display, having anchored in space on the far side of the station. The Osprey and the last warship were behind the shuttle now, also anchored in space. Kim thought it looked very much like they were an invasion fleet here to attack. There was no question that they had the station surrounded.

  “And if Kingdom-friendly people aren’t in charge?” Kim wondered what kind of defenses Asger’s shuttle had.

  “Then we won’t be welcome,” Casmir said. “Asger, can you find out if Ishii has been chatting with the president and can give a status report?”

  “He hasn’t and can’t.” Asger glanced at them. “I checked before we left. The station hasn’t responded to his attempts to hail them. He tried the president’s office, security, and a couple of other comms. Nothing.”

  “It’s possible someone sabotaged the station’s comm system,” Casmir said. “It’s also possible that the Kingdom-friendly people have lost power, and those who are in charge now don’t want to talk to us.”

  “That seems likely.”

  “Even if the station’s central comm system is down,” Kim said, “there’s nothing wrong with the closest satellite—otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get news feeds from around the system—so I should be able to use chip-to-chip contact to speak with my colleague.”

  “But you can’t, right?” Casmir asked.

  “He hasn’t answered since we talked that first time.”

  “If there are roving bands of rioters, everybody may be too afraid to draw attention to themselves by sending transmissions. Someone may have also forbidden them from talking to anyone on these warships.”

  “Or they could all be dead,” Asger said grimly.

  “That seems unlikely,” Casmir said.

  Kim shifted uneasily in her pod, remembering that Chi had been contemplating making some virus to unleash on the rioters. She hoped his sanity hadn’t stretched so far that he’d truly considered that a good idea.