by Paige Tyler
* * * * *
“I don’t like this.”
Rade lifted his gaze from the holo-map he’d been studying to give Kellen a sidelong glance. “I’m not exactly pleased with the way things worked out myself. But we’ll just have to make due. We don’t much of a choice. If we don’t deliver that shipmen like we promised, then a lot of innocent people are going to suffer.”
The older man sighed. “I understand why you’re so sympathetic to their situation, but that doesn’t make it any less dangerous. “Going after the girl totally destroyed any chance we had of making the original rendezvous. According to the rebels, there was going to be a gap in the Federation’s patrol grid, but only a small one, and only for a short period of time. That opportunity is gone now. How can we get to the drop point on Marlon Prime if we can’t get through the Federation’s blockade?”
Rade’s mouth tightened. He didn’t need to be reminded of the reason they were behind schedule. Given the same choice, though, he wouldn’t hesitate to rescue her again. “We can still slip through their sensor grid if we go in cloaked. It worked on Kandeere, it will work here.
Kellen frowned. “Kandeere is a small backwater hole, with a few lightweight cruisers. Marlon Prime is blockaded by twenty destroyers and half that many frigates. We’re unlikely to make it through undetected, and even if we did, is it really worth the risk?”
“Everyone on board knew the risks when they signed on, Kellen. That’s why I pay them.” Rade hadn’t meant to sound quite so harsh, but the words were out now. Besides, it was worth the risk. Kellen knew that.
His first officer lifted a brow. “What about Laken Andara? How does she fit into this?”
Rade lowered his gaze to the map and pretended to study it as he thought of the beautiful woman still sleeping in his bed. “She’s the daughter of a high-ranking Federation merchant. If we’re captured, the Federation won’t harm her.” Of course, there was always the possibility that the Feds would just open fire on his ship, and in that case, Laken’s parentage wouldn’t matter. His gut clenched at the thought.
The other man said nothing for a moment. “I wasn’t asking you whether you thought she would be safe. I was wondering if you had thought of a way to use her father’s identity to our benefit. If I had asked you that same question a couple of days ago, that’s what you would have been thinking as well. What’s changed?”
Rade looked at his friend sharply. The older man knew him too well. “Nothing has changed. She doesn’t need us making her a pawn in all of this. The Federation does a fine job of that on its own.”
Though Kellen made no comment, the doubtful look in his eyes spoke volumes.
Rade cleared his throat. “We’re doing the job, old friend. We have no choice.” At Kellen’s nod, he continued, “How long until we get to the Tobagee System, did you say?”
“About twelve hours.”
The sound of footsteps in the doorway drew both their attention, and Rade glanced in the direction of the noise to see Laken standing there. Even dressed in the rumpled clothes she’d been wearing the night before, she looked so damn beautiful that it was all he could do not to sweep her up into his arms and make love to her right there on the floor of his ready room. Sleeping with her may have been a mistake, especially after all the trouble she had caused him, but he would never regret it, he was sure of that.
She gave them an apologetic look. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Rade shook his head. “You didn’t. We were just finishing up.” He glanced at Kellen. “Tell Dev to send an encrypted message to our contact on Marlon Prime saying we’ll meet him at the rendezvous point at twenty-three-hundred hours. Make sure they’re not late. And let the crew know I want to meet with them in the mess in two hours.”
Kellen gave Rade a nod before turning to Laken. “It is good to see you back and unharmed, Ms. Andara.”
She gave him a warm smile. “Thank you, Kellen.”
With another nod in Rade’s direction, the first officer walked out of the room, leaving Rade alone with Laken. For a moment, they both stood like that, as if neither of them knew quite what to say to the other. Admittedly, Rade didn’t have much experience in this area since most of the women he usually bedded were one-night stands. Being able to jump on a ship and head out when things got complicated was more his style.
“Did I hear you say that we would be in the Tobagee System by tonight?” Laken said abruptly.
Rade was taken aback by her question for a moment, but then he nodded. “Yes.”
“Then you’ll be able to drop me off on New Ashanti on the way to Marlon Prime.”
His brow furrowed. He wasn’t really sure what he had expected, but after what had happened between them last night, he’d naturally assumed she wouldn’t be quite so eager to get off his ship as she had been. Obviously not. Laken might be willing to amuse herself with someone like him, but she wasn’t going to hang around afterward. He wasn’t in her league.
When he didn’t say anything, she wet her lips and added, “I’d like to get back to my fiancé.”
Her fiancé. With everything that had happened, he’d almost forgotten she was engaged to another man. Turning back to the table, he leaned his hands on the edge of it and studied the holo-map. “We won’t be able to drop you off on the way. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a little while longer to be reunited with that fiancé of yours.”
Behind him, he heard Laken take a step closer. “Why can’t you drop me off on the way?”
His grip on the table tightened at the petulant tone in her voice. “Because I have a job to do first.”
She snorted. “Of course you do. “What is it you’re running this time? Drugs or weapons? Or is it something even more illegal?”
Rade spun around to face her. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“I understand, all right. I know exactly what you are, and it disgusts me.”
Rade clenched his jaw. She sure as hell hadn’t been disgusted with him last night. The urge to throw that back in her face was almost too strong to resist, but he wouldn’t allow himself to go there. For some reason he couldn’t understand, he really wanted her to know the truth about him, and why he did what he did. But he couldn’t risk it. If she told her father or anyone else in the Federation when she got off his ship, it would put his whole crew in danger.
When he didn’t answer, Laken folded her arms to glare up at him. “How long is this job on Marlon Prime going to take?”
“If things go smoothly, then we’ll be in and out in an hour. You could be back with your fiancé by this time tomorrow.”
She nodded, apparently satisfied. “Fine.”
Turning on her heel, she stormed out of his ready room. Rade ground his jaw. Damn, how he wished they did have time to drop her off on New Ashanti before the job. It would certainly make his life a whole hell of a lot easier. As he turned back to study the holo-map again, though, he knew that wasn’t true. She might be a spoiled brat who had no clue how the real world worked, but as infuriating as she could be, part of him was going to miss her like hell when she left.
* * * * *
Insufferable, arrogant jerk, Laken thought as she marched down the passageway. She couldn’t believe he’d refused to drop her off on New Ashanti. It would have only taken a couple of hours at the most, but he wouldn’t even consider it. All he cared about was his stupid job and making a damn profit. How could she have slept with a man like him?
That thought brought her to a halt right there in the middle of the passageway. She knew she should be pleased Rade hadn’t brought up their night together, but for some reason the fact that he hadn’t even mentioned it bothered her. Was she that forgettable? Or was he just so used to having women in his bed that he could disregard their night of passion so easily?
Furious at herself for even caring what Rade Karsten thought of her, Laken rounded the corner and headed for the mess. To her relief, it was empty. As angry as she was, she was afraid that if she ran i
nto someone right then, she might display a complete lack of composure. Crossing the room, she yanked open one of the cabinets and grabbed a bowl, then set it down on the counter with a thud. She dumped a packet of oatmeal in it and put it in the heating unit, then slammed the door closed with a bang. Taking out a mug, she thumped that down beside it, then took out the canister of tea bags.
“Food that bad, huh?”
Laken turned to see Dev coming into the room. The heating unit beeped, announcing the oatmeal was ready.
“It’s not the food,” she said. “It’s your insufferable captain. He refuses to drop me off on New Ashanti before he does his stupid job.”
The other girl shrugged as she opened one of the cabinets and took out a mug. “Well, we are kind of pressed for time on this.”
Laken walked over to the table and sat down. “I didn’t realize criminals adhered to such strict schedules.”
Dev spun around to face her. “You don’t even know what we’re delivering, and if you did, you wouldn’t be nearly so quick to judge.”
Laken dipped her spoon into the oatmeal. “No, I don’t know what it is. But I do know that it’s illegal.”
“You’re right. It is illegal,” Dev said. “But in the real world, that doesn’t automatically make it wrong.”
Laken watched the dark-haired girl pour coffee into her mug. She wanted to eat her oatmeal and drink her tea, then go back to her cabin and spend the rest of the day seething about the way Rade had just dismissed her, but her curiosity got the better of her.
“So, what are you carrying?” she asked the other woman.
Dev added cream and sugar to her coffee before answering. “Medicine.”
Laken blinked. “Medicine? That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Then what’s the big deal?”
Dev walked over to the table and sat down opposite her. “Because we’re delivering it to the people of Marlon Prime. That planet is currently under Federation embargo, which makes any contact with them illegal. That includes bringing them first aid.”
Laken frowned. She’d never given much thought to the Federation’s activities on the outer planets. As far as she knew, all the Federation did was set pricing policies and guard their ships from pirates. “I don’t understand.”
Dev sipped her coffee. “What do you know about Federation business practices?”
“Not much. They’re a merchant guild that does business all over the galaxy. They sell supplies and equipment to the outer planets, then bring back raw material and exotic goods to the inner worlds. What else is there to know?”
“Lots,” Dev said. “Have you ever wondered why the Federation doesn’t seem to have any competition?”
Laken shrugged.
“Because the people who run it are greedy and cruel beyond belief,” the dark-haired woman said. “They ruthlessly eliminate any competition to ensure that planets like Marlon Prime will be forced to deal with them. The Federation pays next to nothing for the good they purchase from the outer planets, even though they make billions of credits selling those same products to the inner worlds. Even worse, planets like Marlon Prime are forced to pay outrageous charges for even the most basic supplies. Whole planets have gone bankrupt, thanks to the Federation. And when a planet decides to go around the Federation by transporting their own products and making their own deals, then the Federation becomes truly ruthless.”
“What do you mean?”
Dev leaned forward to lean her elbows on the table. “When the Federation decides a planet is trying to go around them, they blockade the planet. Nothing in, nothing out.”
Laken thought a moment. “And Marlon Prime is one of these planets that’s been blockaded.”
Dev nodded. “Yes. They’ve been resisting the Federation for almost a year now. The Federation doesn’t take kindly to rebellion. They think it encourages other planets to try the same thing. So, about two months ago, the Federation began to drop bio-agents onto the major cities.”
Laken frowned. She’d never heard anything about it on the news-vids. She couldn’t believe her father or the other merchants she knew would be part of something like that, regardless of how money hungry they were.
“Even though thousands of people on Marlon Prime have already died, the planet is still resisting,” Dev continued. “A few weeks ago, another pirate crew managed to slip a blood sample of the virus through the blockade. They brought it back to Tellune and were able to get an antidote produced, but the Federation knows about it and will do anything to stop it from getting through. That’s where we come in. The captain was the only one that would agree to try to get the antidote through the blockade.”
Laken felt her stomach churn. She’d never felt so naïve or embarrassed in her life. She had never known the Federation did things like this, not had she ever thought about where all their money came from. Suddenly, she felt ashamed about the things she had said to Rade and his crew. She’d just thought Rade was just a pirate looking to make fast money. She’d never dreamed he was saving lives.
“Why didn’t Rade just tell me about this instead of letting me think he was carrying illegal drugs or weapons?” she asked quietly.
Dev gave her a small smile. “You’re the daughter of one of the Federation’s leading families. He was probably concerned that if he said anything to you, it might get back to your father.”
“I would never say anything to my father about Rade or his crew.”
Dev toyed with the handle on her mug. “I know that, but the captain can’t take that chance. It’s not just the crew he’s protecting, Laken, but everyone on Marlon Prime as well. They’re depending on him to get through with that antidote. He’ll do anything to get it to them.”
Laken sighed. “Why would he take such a risky job? I mean, I know it’s important, but why not let someone else do it?”
The other woman was silent for a moment. “The captain would be really pissed off at me if he knew I had told you about this, but there’s something you should know about him. Something that will help you understand why he does the things he does. Have you ever heard of Aurora Five?” When Laken shook her head, she continued. “Of course not. It’s not the kind of things they write about in the inner-world school books. Twenty years ago, Aurora Five rebelled against the Federation just like Marlon Prime is doing now. And just like now, the Federation resorted to bio-bombs. Back then, though, there wasn’t an antidote for the agent they dropped. The captain was ten years old when it happened. He watched his whole family die around him. His parents, his brother and his sister all died in horrible pain at the hands of the Federation.”
Laken stared at the other girl in astonishment. “Oh, God. That’s terrible. How was he able to survive?”
Dev shrugged. “The law of averages, I suppose. Out of the millions of people who were infected, some were naturally resistant to it. The captain was one of them. Since then, he’s spent every minute of his life fighting the Federation.”
Tears stung Laken’s eyes. “I never knew.”
“How could you have known? Kellen and I are the only people who know about it. The rest of the crew doesn’t even know.” Dev sighed. “Laken, I see the way you two look at each other. I know there’s something between you, or there could be, especially now that you know the captain isn’t the ruthless pirate you think he is.”
Laken didn’t say anything. Most of the time, she and Rade couldn’t stand to be in the same room with each other, so she had no idea what kind of looks Dev thought she’d seen pass between them. Or was that Dev’s way of saying she knew Laken and Rade had slept together? She was trying to think of a clever way to figure out just how much Dev knew when the dark-haired woman spoke.
“Laken, the captain put this entire mission at risk when he went back to look for you. We were going to slip through an opening in the Federation’s sensor network, but by turning around to get you, we missed that chance. Everything will be a lot more dangerous now.”
/> Laken swallowed hard. Rade had put their job, a job that was incredibly important, on hold for her. To say she had misjudged him from the beginning was an understatement.
Across from her, Dev pushed back her chair. “I need to get going. The captain’s called a meeting in a couple of hours and I have some things to do before then. I’ll see you later.”
Laken nodded absently as the other woman left the room. Although she knew it probably wouldn’t mean much now, she needed to apologize to Rade. She needed to tell she’d been wrong about him, and that she knew what it had cost him to come back and save her life. Her actions had not just endangered Rade and his crew, but also the people of Marlon Prime. She wished there was some way she could make it right, but she couldn’t think of anything. An apology was a good place to start, though.