by Tammy Salyer
“Cross, we got issues.” Sims is staring at a console, the bluish light reflecting off the whites of his narrowed eyes. “We need to get ourselves the fuck outta here immediately.”
I turn, ready to argue—David and I have to get to the Sphynx, talk to Vitruzzi. I know that at least Brady, Venus, Desto, and Karl are all with her, and David, La Mer, and I are here with Rob, but that still leaves about 125 people—124 without Bodie—who are being rounded up like sheep as we speak. We’d planned for a lot of possible scenarios after we’d done what we had on the Fortress, but never something as horrific as this. I suspect I know what Vitruzzi will want to do, the same as what I want to do, but the first thing we have to do is regroup. Rounding on Cross, I say, “You can’t go anywhere until you get us to the Sphynx.”
“You don’t tell us—” Baker growls, standing close to me like she’s going to swing.
Facing her, more than ready to take this to the next level, the muscles in my arms and back tense. Do it, Baker. Push me just a little bit more. Give me a reason to unleash this horrible rage before it poisons me to death.
Rob chimes in before that happens. “Bodie was a good man. I don’t know what the hell the Admin would want to do this for but I’ll do what I can to help.” Montoya, Sims, and Baker stiffen, ready to protest, but he continues, “Within reason. We have to be careful but we’ll get you back to your crew.”
La Mer remains standing to the side, quietly, fading into the background, but the despondency in his face shows how hard it’s hitting him. I don’t know what I can say to help him, but I do know that the Admin and the Corps are going to pay for this.
David says, “Rob, you don’t have to do this. Just put us down in the Flats and leave. You don’t need to be part of the shit storm that’s coming.”
I twist around and glare at David, furious with him for letting Rob off the hook, but he gives me a look that convinces me to drop it for now.
“Erickson, are you there?” It’s Vitruzzi. I jump a little at the unexpected transmission and hold my VDU up. Her face is a mask of pain.
“Here.”
“You saw?”
My throat feels like it’s filled with dirt, dry as dust, and I have to swallow before I can speak again. “Yeah.”
“What’s your status? Has the Corps made contact with Rob?” She’s already thinking ahead, trying to figure out what happens next, and her deliberate response helps me get back on track.
“No. We’re clear for now. He’s going to bring us to you. Where should we rendezvous?”
Vitruzzi is silent for a moment and I wonder if I failed to transmit. Then she says, “Let me talk to Rob.”
I hold my arm up so the screen faces him. He reaches out and holds the transmit button. “Eleanor, I’m really sorry.”
“Thanks.” Lines around her eyes show she’s suffering, but she controls it with granite resolve. “Look, we can’t go near the Beach. How far are you willing to take the three of them?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“We’re planning to make for R’Kadia.”
Rob considers it for a moment. R’Kadia is a little more than a day away, and that’s if we can fly straight to it without having to evade pursuit by Corps ships. Every decision he makes from now until he cuts us loose is overshadowed by one major complication: he’s harboring wanted fugitives. He, and his crew, are in jeopardy until that’s no longer the case. If I were him, I’d hesitate before agreeing to Vitruzzi’s proposal.
“We can do that,” he replies, and I feel a touch of the tension in my shoulders let go.
His three crewmembers respond with surprising restraint. Whatever their history together, this crew has shown that it regards the rule of unquestioned loyalty to their captain as a trifling inconvenience at best and an outright joke at worst. But no one protests.
Vitruzzi sounds relieved. “You have our thanks once again. I’m sending coordinates for a rendezvous point. We hope to be there within thirty-eight hours if things go well. Let us know if you have any trouble. We’ll do the same.”
Rob turns to the navigator. “Baker, set our course. We’ll see you soon, Eleanor.” My VDU darkens as she cuts the transmission.
“Rob, are you sure you want to do this?” David asks.
“Yeah. It’s fine. We’ll get you there. Don’t worry, man.” Even as he says this, wrinkles of anxiety settle across his forehead and convert the laugh lines around his eyes into something much less whimsical. “Sims, Montoya, find them somewhere comfortable to stay for the next few hours.” He turns to us. “In case you want to catch a nap…or something.”
TWELVE
Only six hours pass before a Corps scout ship catches up to us. David, La Mer, and I sit morosely in the galley, sipping food supplement mixes and not saying much, wondering how things could have gone so wrong so fast. The craving for one of Rob’s illicit cocktail mixes is strong, and I struggle to keep myself from finding the contraband room and drinking myself comatose. When Rob said Bodie was a good man, he couldn’t know the half of it. Bodie was more than that; he was a friend. Despite our first inauspicious meeting, what we’d been through together—the rescue mission on the Fortress, the way he made me laugh and brought me freshly grown fruits during my recovery after Rajcik shot me, and the way he brought a sense of calm and serenity to every situation—had made him more like family, nearly as close to me as David. Thinking about a day passing in the grow rooms without seeing his wide, welcoming smile and laughing blue eyes makes tears sting my eyes, but I force them back. This isn’t the time for sorrow. The Corps—vile, murdering animals that they are—ruthlessly killed one of the best men I’d ever known. And they will answer for it.
David and La Mer sit in silence battling their own pain. Despite the fragile quiet, none of us let our guard down, and no one is surprised when Rob enters the galley—not exactly running, but definitely not doddering.
Rising to his feet, David asks, “What’s going on?”
“Corps-security patrol ship. They’re demanding to board for a routine contraband search. Come with me. We can stash you in the swag room.”
“Are you crazy? You want us to hide behind a holo?” There’s no way in hell I’m going to hide in a place where the only thing between me and armed soldiers out for blood is a fragile electronic fakeout.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“You’re a smuggler for fuck’s sake. Don’t you have a real hiding place?”
“Sure, if you can shrink yourself down to half a cubic meter, I’ve got just the place for you.”
“Aly, we don’t have time to argue,” La Mer says, not realizing what he’s in for.
To punctuate Rob’s point, Montoya’s voice comes through the intercom. “Cross, they’re linked and engaging the airlock.” Cross cocks an eyebrow at us, and with a sinking feeling in my stomach, we all sprint to the room where his illegal cache of goods are stored. In plain sight.
He activates the holographic deflector and the false wall materializes in front of us. “Keep it quiet. This always works.”
“Just get rid of them,” David growls.
He begins walking back up the corridor just as we hear the leader of the security squad step out of the cargo bay.
A woman’s voice comes down the corridor. “You must be Captain Cross.”
“That’s right, Major. What’s this about?”
“Under Admin authority code six-zero-six, we have the legal imperative to search your ship, and that includes seeing your identity registrations. We’ll ask for them one by one. Your full cooperation is required and expected.”
The voice clangs off the corridor walls, sounding full of bloated self-worth. David and I look at each other and his lips pull back in an infuriated snarl, the strange inner luminescence of the holo-wall giving his teeth a silvery cast. I hadn’t thought what it would be like to be on this side of it, but the fact that we can’t see through the wall—as if it were actually real and solid—does nothing t
o improve my confidence.
“Yes, ma’am. You’re aware that I’m legally contracted to be in this quadrant. My contract is current, granted by the Ministry of S&E.”
“Yes we are, Captain Cross. There have been activities in the area that have necessitated tightened security measures.”
“Well, if you could hurry it up. We’re on our way back to the Obals and most clients aren’t very understanding when they’re contractors are late. You understand.”
There’s no response as their footsteps echo past us toward the bow end of the corridor. None of us look at each other. We’re all staring at the fake wall fervently, as if concentrating on it will make it more real, more solid.
Forty-five minutes pass before the sound of people returning echoes toward us. We all tense, counting their steps until the go by and back into the cargo hold. A few minutes later, we hear the airlock engage and a hollow sound as the outer airlock opens, releasing our uninvited Corps guests. Rob returns and shuts down the projector.
“You’re in the clear. They’re already outside of visual range. No worries. Just routine, like they said.”
La Mer is visibly relieved and David takes a deep breath. “Nice one,” he comments. “Now if you don’t mind telling me what the hell that thing is…”
THIRTEEN
The ’Rize settles onto the dusty landscape of R’Kadia with the fluid grace of luxury cruiser-class engines. My only other visit to this desolate Spectra 5 moon was shortly after meeting Vitruzzi and her crew—if you can call being kidnapped meeting. She’d recruited me to help ensure a smuggling exchange arranged with a local band of brigands went down smoothly. It hadn’t, and our scramble out of the abandoned mine that served as their hideout had not been bloodless. Still, we’d taken what we’d gone for—a significant payload of solar amalgam seeds that will serve to keep the Sphynx powered long after we’re all dead. Thinking back on that confrontation now, I realize Vitruzzi had been testing me to see just how far I could be trusted. That decision was a huge gamble, but she and her crew had been desperate. So had I. The irony that the situation this time is practically interchangeable does nothing to lift my spirits.
La Mer, David, and I stand in the cargo hold listening for the hydraulic landing tripod to lockout and give us clearance to open the port door. The Sphynx is already here, sitting silently in the dirt with her landing ramp open. We walk aboard, anxious to hear what Vitruzzi has in mind.
The rest of the crew await us in the open cargo hold, the compartment seeming small and outmoded after the last few hours spent aboard the newer and grander Red Horizon. I meet Karl’s eyes as we approach and he holds my gaze. So much has happened since our argument two days ago that it’s impossible to guess what he’s feeling. Or what I am, for that matter.
Vitruzzi begins to speak, but Venus suddenly runs to La Mer and grasps him in an embrace that nearly knocks the wind out of him. They hold each other in silence, the rest of us taking some vicarious comfort in their relief.
After a few seconds, Vitruzzi says, “We’re glad to see you’re all safe.”
David responds, “We were lucky Rob picked us up. Otherwise…” He trails off. At the mention of Rob, Karl finally drops my eyes, lines deepening on his forehead.
We’re standing at the rear of the hold in a group. The Sphynx had not been stocked for a long excursion before last leaving Agate Beach and the only thing occupying the compartment right now is the Rover. No one seems to know what else to say, but a look I can’t read passes between Vitruzzi and David. Something about it is unsettling.
“Okay,” Vitruzzi says and swallows like she has something in her throat. “The reason I wanted to regroup on R’Kadia—”
Before she finishes, her eyes drift over my shoulder as someone else climbs the ramp.
“I didn’t think I’d be seeing you people again so soon.”
I swing around in a smooth, liquid turn, right hand already drawing my Mini-Derg from my calf holster.
Rajcik.
His voice vibrates nerves deep inside my core like a shockwave, triggering reflexes that come from a dark place, a place where the worst things a person is capable of come from. As I pull the trigger, an arm sweeps down and knocks my wrist aside, forcing the cutting beam of the laser to streak across the floor, its silence punctuating my furious rage. I turn, instinctively raising my other arm to strike my assailant.
“Aly, hold up!” Karl yells into my face, but it’s like he’s speaking another language. I swore I’d kill Rajcik if he ever crossed my path again…and what the fuck is he doing here now?
“Let go of me!”
“No, wait, just hold it a sec. He’s working for us. Hear me?”
I hear him, but I simply can’t believe it. I yank hard, trying to get him to release my arm, but his grip doesn’t loosen. I’m about to strike him with my free arm, but Rajcik speaks again, freezing me.
“You don’t seem to have expected me, Aly.” The last time I looked into that malevolent face was while he leaned over my broken, helpless body and threatened to murder David and the crew. I almost can’t believe my eyes as I run them over his swarthy features, trying to make sense of something that can’t possibly be happening. He gives Vitruzzi a disgusted look. “You didn’t tell her our deal?”
“Tell me what? What the fuck is going on here, Vitruzzi?” I whirl on her and the rest of the crew, my voice shrill. This time when I pull, Karl releases my arm.
“Erikson, you need to calm down until you understand the situation.” Her voice is cool, placating, but with a hard steel edge.
I’ve gone mute, struck dumb by what I’m hearing. But fury quickly burns through my paralysis. “Understand what situation? You cut a deal? With him!” My voice cracks and my stomach clenches involuntarily as if the wind has been knocked out of me. “Do I have to remind you people that he’s the reason every one of us nearly died out there? He betrayed everyone in this room, some of us more than once, and now you’ve cut a fucking deal? Are you nuts?”
The more I speak, witnessing the careful neutrality in their faces, the more the reality hits home. Of the six people standing in front of me, La Mer is the only one who seems slightly confused, his glance bouncing to Rajcik, to the crew, to me, and back to Rajcik as he tries to piece together a connection he knows nothing about. A new thought floats into my mind like a dead and bloated thing. David knew about this. My own brother. The blood drains from my face and my limbs go slack. Turning back to face Rajcik, I feel my hand still holding the Derg begin to rise again on its own. His lips curl back in a snarl, then David’s voice stops me.
“Aly, don’t.” My eyes snap to his face and I see his guilt. He betrayed me. All of them had.
Without another word, I drop my arm and careen past them through the airlock and into the passageway leading to the crew quarters. My only thought is to take what’s mine and get the fuck out of here.
FOURTEEN
“I can pay you. I’ve got cash, I just need your help getting it. Will you do it?” I’m sitting on the ’Rize’s flight deck proposing a deal to Rob. I need a ride off of R’Kadia. If he can take me as far as the moon Kai Lum that orbits Spectra 4, I’ll cut him in on a third of the money David and I have stashed over the last few years—our own insurance policy. If Rajcik hasn’t gotten to it first, that is.
“Yeah, of course I’ll take you. But, Aly, you’re clearly pissed about something. I think you should tell me what’s going on before I agree.” He puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder.
“I wish I could.” His hand slips from my shoulder as I begin pacing. His hesitancy makes it apparent that my decision to abandon the crew, brash as it is, is going to require some careful negotiation. The irony in the whole fucked-up situation is enough to make me want to scream. I’m forced to rely on Rob to get me gone, despite the fact that relying on others is what got me here in the first place. How could they do this? They knew Rajcik was alive. The knew it, and even worse, they forged some sort of arrangement, some
sort of fucking contract with him. With Rajcik! Their decision compromises everything we’d fought together for. Why would they do it? Desperation? Ignorance? Necessity? I don’t care. My brother, even Karl, betrayed me. It shakes me more than seeing Rajcik again in the first place has. What else are they hiding from me? Why didn’t they tell me? Were they trying to spare me this rage, this disbelief? Does it matter? No. Whatever their reasons were, they still betrayed to me.
I can’t explain all that to Rob, there’s no time. “You just have to trust me. It’s better for you and your crew if we get the hell off this rock ASAP. I’ll explain on the way.”
He regards me with a distant consideration that I’m not used to. “And what about David? Is he coming?”
“No, I’m not.”
We both turn, surprised to see him standing in the galley’s doorway. Before he tries to speak, I cut in, “Whatever you have to say, you can choke on it.”
“Aly, come on. You need to just listen to this.”
“Listen to what, David? That lunatic tries to kill you, and you, what? Ask him to be part of your crew?”
“It’s not what you think—”
“You’re my fucking brother! I’m supposed to be able to trust you!”
He’s also getting angry now. Redness only slightly darker than his hair creeps out of his shirt collar and up his neck. “Dammit, Aly. Look at the way you’re reacting. Are you surprised we didn’t tell you? You probably would have tried to fly up here and kill him yourself like some kind of goddamn merc.”
“You’re damn right I would have! And so would you if you were thinking straight.”
“Do either of you want to tell me what this is about?” Rob speaks quietly, leaving the request optional.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, David continues, “Look, I know we should have told you, but this wasn’t supposed to happen. Working with Rajcik was supposed to be a last chance option, a backup contingency. There was never any need to tell you because we—I—knew you wouldn’t understand.”