by M. D. Cooper
Kylie appreciated the words, but she didn’t feel particularly courageous, especially as she spoke the next order.
Marge sent a feeling of affirmation.
RECRIMINATION
STELLAR DATE: 11.05.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Barbaric Queen, Platform 9, North Docks
REGION: Chimin-1, Hanoi System (independent)
After scrubbing down, Ricket returned to her personal quarters to get some clothing.
It was a good-sized cabin with layers of white fabric panels hanging above her bed. A soft lavender rug lay by the small black-and-white coffee table. She often sat there in the morning, drinking a cup of coffee, going over updates that had stacked up during her time infiltrating the Revolution fleets.
Sometimes she just lost herself staring into her grav-lamp. The bubbles trapped in green liquid, traveling up and down, changing shape and position, had always been soothing.
Her small cabin on the Barbaric Queen was the first time in decades that she had been able to make a place be truly hers. Not a cover, not a small room back in Petra’s embassy on Alexandria.
Really hers.
But today she barely noticed all the niceties she’d gathered as she rushed into her room, dropping the towel on the floor before pulling open her wardrobe.
Ricket slipped a blue off-the-shoulder sweater over her head before pulling on a pair of tight leather leggings. It made her feel like a woman, which she desperately needed, thanks to the boils forming on her cheek and forehead.
Ricket sighed, touching her cheeks while staring at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were already bloodshot.
Ricket was glad for that.
Laura didn’t say anything and Ricket tried to think of something to make her AI understand. Anything was better than the silent treatment.
She did wonder about Rogers; a lot of what Laura said was true. She saw the way Rogers always looked at her—most people looked at her that way—but his feelings for her…was it possible it was nothing more than a physical thing?
Was she just the flavor of the month? After he got her in bed, would Rogers be through with her?
Ricket’s heart said no, it wasn’t like that, but her head…her head was screaming something else entirely.
BETTER
STELLAR DATE: 11.05.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Barbaric Queen, Platform 9, North Docks
REGION: Chimin-1, Hanoi System (independent)
Rogers groaned as he poured the last few drops of coffee in his mug down his throat.
He’d hoped that getting some food would dull the feeling of the sickness running through him, but it hadn’t lessened the sensations of illness at all.
Life was different for him now that he flew the Barbaric Queen. He felt his heart beating, his organs moving fluids through his body—if he concentrated enough—but now he felt everything slowing down, the virus gumming up the pipes, as it were.
He set his cup on one of the galley’s prep tables before resting his head down on the cool surface as well. He stayed like that for several minutes, letting the metal chill his forehead.
After a few minutes, he felt Ricket’s hand run through his hair. He knew it was her because the air vibrated differently around Ricket. All things considered, it felt nice to have her so close.
“Kylie’s coffee’s always tasted bad, but not that bad,” Rogers muttered. It tasted like hot chilies and grated on his throat, feeling like sandpaper going down.
He lifted his head and smiled at Ricket despite himself and the situation they’d found themselves in.
A large boil stood out on Ricket’s left cheek, marring her beauty, but Rogers still saw her true essence shine beneath the surface. He stroked her other cheek with the back of his hand, aware of how warm her skin was to the touch. She might as well have been a hotplate.
“Didn’t those cheap bastards from the Hand give you any nano?”
Ricket nodded somberly. “It’s fighting the infection. It’ll just take more time. At least I don’t look as bad as you do.”
Rogers glanced down at his arm and flipped it over, seeing the tiny boils popping up all over his skin. “Hey, you should’ve seen what I looked like as a pimply teenager.”
Her eyes bore a deep sadness. “You should’ve let me deal with Winter. You’re the one who belonged on the other side of the door.”
“Well, I hadn’t thought about that at the time,” Rogers said lightly. “I’d do the same thing again if I had to. My conscience would never let me do anything different. Mind you, we all got dosed anyway when Winter’s pod blew its lid. Literally.”
Ricket pouted. “Stars, you’re infuriating as ever, Rogers.”
“It’s a gift. It’s also why you want to kiss me.”
“Yes,” Ricket admitted, “and why not kissing you seems stupid. I can’t remember what the reasons have been for either of us pulling away. All the stupid jokes, all the stupid fights, when all I really want—”
Rogers understood what she was saying, he knew what those reasons were but didn’t want to relate them. So, he pushed his lips against hers for the first time, and it felt like the very first time he had kissed anyone like that. Grabbing her arms, pulling her in close, Rogers opened his mouth, tasting her own illness.
Stars, this is stupid. Rogers thought as their feverish bodies clung to each other.
But maybe, with the lives they lived, it didn’t matter. You never knew when you’d get another chance. Maybe they’d be out of chances and never get to admit that their attraction went beyond their physical appearances. It was new to him. Rogers didn’t think he had ever felt so much desperation.
“I want to take you to bed,” Rogers said, “I want to show you the time of your life, but I’m afraid if we did, we’d end up fused together with these fevers we have.”
Ricket laughed. “Funny that you think you’d show me the time of my life. Pretty sure it’ll be me showing you.”
“Once we’re better, I’ll take you up on that.” Rogers grinned. “We’ll see which of us teaches the other. I’m kind of hoping, we’ll meet somewhere in the middle—once we’re better.”
“Once we’re better,” Ricket agreed, laying her head against his shoulder, her arms loosely draped around his neck.
If they got better.
But Rogers didn’t want to say that. He didn’t want to say that at all.
SOLUTIONS
STELLAR DATE: 11.05.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Barbaric Queen, Platform 9, North Docks
REGION: Chimin-1, Hanoi System (independent)
Kylie stood in the med-bay and watched Winter as his body slowly healed. He had hours left to go, maybe days. She didn’t know when it’d be safe to take him out of the pod—that was almost impossible to know for sure.
He’d be infected by the virus too, and the last thing she wanted to do was wake him up to more pain.
Kylie’s own fever was low grade, but it had come on faster than she’d expected. She still hadn’t told Nicole what her plan was, though the doctor was just a few meters away, feverish herself, but still poring over analysis and treatment plans.
A loud bang caught Kylie’s attention, and she turned to see Nicole straightening in front of one of the medbay’s consoles.
“Just a dizzy spell, slipped a bit,” Nicole said apologetically. “The effects of the virus are coming on much faster than I’d seen it in my clinic. Already my vision is blurry, and my fever is so high, I feel like my skin is melting right off. I know it’s an hallucination, the effects of being sick. Soon, I’ll start to lose my mind. Everyone on this ship is holding on longer than me, I guess because your tech is so beyond my own.”
Kylie didn’t know what to say to that, so asked, “Has the medbay been able to work up a cure?”
Nicole shook her head. “It’s top-of-the-line, I’ll give it that, but somehow this virus has it licked. It’s like every vector the medbay tries on the virus, the stuff just mutates to evade. If we’d all received a smaller dose…caught it instantly…then maybe…. As it stands? The best I can do is buy time.”
“I have a plan that just might work,” Kylie said, the fear in Nicole’s voice causing her to realize how cruel it had been not to share the hope her nano might give.
I guess the asshole doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“My nano can cure the virus that the gas carries. I should be able to create a cure soon. From what Marge tells me, it’ll be some sort of nano-borne RNA retrovirus. Rogers probably isn’t much better off than you—the both of you will be the first to receive a cure.”
“Because you can tell we’re dying?”
Partly, Kylie thought as she watched Nicole’s hand shake as she operated the console. “Because you didn’t need to be exposed. You were exposed because I kidnapped you from the hospital.”
Nicole’s lips twitched into a rare smile. “I wouldn’t say kidnap…OK, I would say kidnap. Still, I let my emotions get the better of me before. I can appreciate going to great lengths to save lives.”
Kylie took a step toward Nicole, almost reaching out to brush the doctor’s hair back, but stopping herself in time. It didn’t feel right. She wasn’t ready to move on.
“Getting sick like this is hard to deal with for anyone,” she said, inwardly groaning at how stupid she sounded.
“Dying from a strange gas-borne virus is the least stress I’ve felt in years. Normally, I worry about other people dying—and that’s much worse. Well…I guess I’m worried about that too. Nevermind, fever talking here.”
“As a captain, I know what you mean. C’mon, you need to rest. You can lie down in a cabin.”
Nicole held up her hand and shook her head. “No, I have to keep working. There’s no guarantees that your nano can do the trick. Besides, Winter is just barely hanging on.”
Kylie’s gaze flicked to Winter’s still form.
“Well, at least lie down on one of the medtables. It can hydrate and monitor you.”
“Maybe just for a bit.” Nicole nodded and allowed Kylie to guide her to the nearest medtable.
“You take me to all the nicest places, Captain.” Nicole gave a faint laugh then broke out into a hacking cough.
“In a perfect world, I’d get to take you off this rock. Won’t be hard to show you nicer places than this.”
Nicole’s fading eyes stared up at Kylie as if through a fog. “I knew I felt a connection with you. I think it’s why I was such a bitch. You’re the type of woman who never sticks around long. You’re too important, too busy. I’ve been the girl at the Chimin port too many times. I can recognize the type.”
“Well, maybe a short cruise, somewhere nice,” Kylie replied. “No commitments.”
“A cruise sounds nice,” Nicole said, sleepiness in her voice.
“Least I can do. Chimin needs you way more than it needs the likes of me.”
Truth was, Kylie’s heart very much belonged to Grayson, and he was alive, well, and out there fighting the good fight too. She wouldn’t know how many years it’d be before she saw him again. That distance, and something vulnerable in Nicole, added confusion for Kylie.
“When I get better, I’d really like that,” Nicole whispered, her eyes closing. Kylie didn’t know if she was falling asleep or simply passing out.
Marge said.
* * * * *
Kylie was lying on one of the medtables herself, wishing for a visit from Mr. Fizzle Pop, when Marge alerted her to a call from Raynes.
Raynes said as his communication came through loud and clear.
Kylie put Rayne’s visual on one of the medbay’s holodisplays and let out a laugh. “Sorry, the angle on this display and your camera is giving me a great view right up your nostrils.”
Raynes shook his head. “Make jokes if that’s what you want, Captain. But it’s time we put all our cards on the table. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Kylie did agree. “Talk fast.”
“You’ll notice how much faster the virus is ripping through your people this time. That’s not by chance. We’ve improved the delivery system to bypass the need for an initial incubation period. Cuts days off the survival time, but it’s now airborne even after the initial gas dispersal. It can move through the air from the sick to new victims.”
“Why is it that bastards like you give up your principles the moment it suits you? You’re supposed to hate technology, want to save people. Now you’re using tech to kill more people faster. Seems to me all you care about is death.”
Raynes shrugged. “War is war, Rhoads. More will die in the long run if not for me. Nano has helped make it an effective killing machine. Trust me, though, it will only target the right people as it moves through Chimin-1.”
The right people? What did that mean? “You’re a real bastard, you know that?”
Raynes shrugged and held his hands up in the air. “Guilty as charged. I got tired of playing nice with you. You needed to see my resolve, but now that you have, I’ll give you enough of the cure to save your crew. And a lot of others too. All I need is safe passage to my freighter and everyone will live.”
So that he could escape and do this to worlds of people that he and the Papote didn’t agree with? “You just want to take your stores of death gas and spread it everywhere, don’t you?”
“If I don’t move it off Chimin, Papote will come here to take it by force. From the looks of you, you’re in no shape to fight them head on. They’ll destroy everyone on this installation to get what I’ve manufactured. You know it’s true, you’ve met men like me before. Men like your own father.”
He spoke the words with the conviction of a true zealot, but all Kylie could feel was disdain for the misguided man on the holo.
Kylie let a long sigh escape her lips. “All right. I’ll make the exchange, but I’m doing it to save people.”
Raynes laughed. “Sure, kid. Whatever you say. I’ll meet you outside the fre
ighter. I’ll give you thirty minutes. Looks like it’ll take you that long just to get over there from the condition you’re in.”
The connection cut off, and Kylie laid her head back then cursed for a solid minute. Raynes was wrong about a lot of things, but he was right about her condition. Just the act of venting her frustration made her feel like vomiting.
Kylie whistled.
Marge giggled.
THE DEAL
STELLAR DATE: 11.06.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Platform 2, North Docks
REGION: Chimin-1, Hanoi System (independent)
Kylie crept toward the freighter on the docking bay, watching for any enemies, though so far seeing none.
Two minutes remained before Raynes’ countdown expired—not that she cared. What was he going to do if she was late? Bluster more?