The Stargazer’s shuttle easily slid past the mostly open bay door of the Mirage’s back hanger, gliding to a perfect stop in the slot where the Mirage’s crew shuttle had been housed before she’d sent them out after the sabotage.
The fuel alarm resumed its loud barrage of noise as the fuel gauge hit less than half a percent of fuel remaining. The moment they crossed the threshold of the docking bay, Jeremy sent the command to close the hangar door, cut the engines, but left life support on inside their shuttle.
With the last bit of fuel, Jeremy scanned the Mirage’s interior for any other life forms and found the only life forms aboard were theirs. Angelica raised an eyebrow.
“Just in case. It’s a safety precaution, you know.” He pushed out a long, slow breath and added, “After tossing my regulation book out the airlock to look for you, it feels good to go back to basics and away from the dark side of lawlessness.”
Angelica leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For tossing aside your regulation book to find me and get me out of there.”
He stood in the confined space, blocking Vidarr from leaving the co-pilot seat, and took her in his arms and kissed her soundly. “You’ve already thanked me for that. Besides, I absolutely had to find you. Life’s just not worth it for me without you,” he said, walking her backward down the center aisle to the back of the shuttle.
He kissed her again. She kissed back. Then they simply stared at one another, like they couldn’t believe they’d found each other again. At least that’s how she felt. She was so grateful to have her memories back and especially the identity of her mysterious tattooed lover. She looked away first, her gaze dropping to Will for a moment. Jeremy also looked at him. Squeezing her tighter, he whispered, “We’re all going to be okay, I promise.”
Angelica squeezed him in return, so grateful for his acceptance of Will and the possibility her gladiator might be a part of their future.
But as if Angelica’s gaze touching him was physical, Will suddenly sucked in a deep breath and woke, sitting straight up in his seat as they passed him. He glanced at Jeremy still arm in arm with Angelica, and said, “Are we stopped?”
“Yes,” Jeremy said.
“Are we over the border?”
“No. Unfortunately there’s been a wrinkle in our plan.”
“A wrinkle, huh? And I slept through it all? What happened?”
“It was an extraordinary journey fraught with perils at every turn, but we made it to Angelica’s abandoned ship, the Mirage. We can tell you the story later,” Jeremy said.
Will smiled. “Well, that’s better than where we were, right? Even while I slept, I never doubted for a second that we’d make it somewhere safe.”
Truthfully, Angelica had harbored reservations enough for all of them. Bergeron was still out cold, which was good. She wasn’t ready to deal with him ever again. If they kept him permanently knocked out until they turned him over to the Bravura authorities, that would be fine with her.
Vidarr, finally able to climb out of the co-pilot seat, stood partly hunched over in the aisle. Sapphire rose from her seat and kissed him. He then promptly asked, “It has certainly been an exciting journey thus far. What’s next?”
Jeremy popped open the shuttle door and said, “I scanned the status of the Mirage while checking for life signs. We are the only ones aboard. Life support is still on in the ship, along with the cloaking device—that I didn’t know existed on this ship until very recently.”
“No one knew about it,” Angelica said with a smile. “Not even me.”
Jeremy nodded. “However, that’s it. There is only about two days’ worth of auxiliary fuel left. Then we’ll have to choose between those two functions, and we also don’t currently have any propulsion.”
Angelica felt the need to explain. “That’s all that the auxiliary power could run for any length of time. The main engines with the recyclable fuel cells wouldn’t respond to my commands, even when I input my captain’s override code.” She glanced over her shoulder at Bergeron. “Let’s get into the ship. We’ll head for the command deck conference room. I’ll explain what happened and we can discuss our next move.”
Jeremy glanced at Bergeron’s limp form again. “It’s a good thing I’ve left the dark path of lawlessness. Justice is looking more and more foolish the more I discover what he did. Although, I don’t know that I trust myself alone with him yet. Are there any airlocks on the way to the command deck?”
Vidarr grunted. “I agree. Justice will be a cold comfort after all we’ve endured. However, for now, I’m assuming you have a brig that can be his new home for our continued journey. I’ll even carry him so you won’t be tempted to shoot him out of an airlock into space.”
“Good call,” Jeremy said.
Angelica also nodded. She exited the shuttle, kissing the tips of her fingertips and touching it to the nose of the vehicle, saying a silent thank you for the safe return to her ship. Jeremy did the same thing. It was sort of a shared superstition they always did after coming back safely from a trip. She’d forgotten a few little things, and was glad to now have them filling the spaces in her still slightly messed-up memory.
The rest of them climbed out of the shuttle. Vidarr carried Bergeron slung over one shoulder and they all exited the shuttle bay into the interior of a quiet Mirage.
The journey through the ship was a bit spooky, but she was so happy to be here. She hoped they’d be able to fix the broken main engines and get across the border. Bergeron likely knew the elusive battle simulation pass code needed, but she didn’t trust him to share it accurately. Likely they’d have to come up with their own creative plan.
Once he was locked safely inside the brig, the five of them went straight to the command deck. There was a captain’s conference room complete with a large table just inside the door.
They all sat down, and Angelica started talking.
“Almost from the moment the Mirage launched away from the Fulchrome System, there was an explosion in engineering. At least according to all the data I had at my disposal, something had blown up, causing a terrible hull breach.”
Everyone looked like they had questions. Angelica put a hand up, gesturing to be allowed to finish.
“Life support was failing, and the on-board computer started counting down oxygen percentages. I sent everyone to the emergency crew shuttle to abandon ship.”
Jeremy said, “Bergeron told me he tried to stay behind with you to repair the damage.”
She nodded. “He did. He kept saying he could fix it, but I lied and told him we were both going off ship in the emergency shuttle to remote operate the Mirage from space. He balked at the unusual command—which wasn’t standard procedure—but entered the shuttle with me on his heels. But instead of following him inside, I skipped backward, closed the door behind him, and launched my crew into space and away from the danger.
“All the while the on-board computer was still counting down how much air I didn’t have left. So I gathered a bio-suit and every oxygen pack on the ship so I could work on transferring the main engines over to auxiliary power.
“During this time, I was repeatedly directed to my life pod, which I ignored until a few seconds before the computer told me that the hull breach had worsened appreciably, and a different countdown started detailing how much time I’d need to reach a minimum safe distance from the impending explosion if I got into my life pod. I abandoned my hunt for oxygen filters or converting the main engines to auxiliary power and immediately launched off of the ship in my assigned life pod.
“From there, I initiated a remote access to the ship, but once I could see the outside of the Mirage, I realized that there hadn’t been any initial explosion in engineering that damaged the hull. It wasn’t breached. There was nothing marring the exterior. Once I’d accessed the command deck remotely, I also discovered life support wasn’t truly gone, like I’d been led to believe.
> “The minimum safe distance clock hit zero, but nothing happened. The readout on my screen then said, ‘Battle simulation completed,’ but I was still locked out.”
“It was a simulation?” Jeremy asked.
“Yes. However, when I tried to access the main engines even using my captain’s override code, it denied me, requiring instead a pass code from the person who’d set up the battle simulation.
“I then tried to return to the Mirage, however, my pod controls wouldn’t respond. It had also been sabotaged, plus my fuel line had been tampered with, and I was losing precious fuel by the second.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced a rage so deep. In that moment, I wanted the saboteur dead in the most excruciatingly painful way possible.” Angelica took a breath, remembering her utter demonic frustration. She shook her head and continued.
“The only thing my captain’s override code would do was either self-destruct the ship or cloak it, which was when I learned the ship could be concealed. My only option was to use the auxiliary power, which was perfect because that action finally shut down the main engines I was unable to access.
“I set the coordinates for some empty space on the wrong side of the Forbidden Zone so the Mirage would be more difficult to locate. At least, unless someone knew where to look. And I also put a secret code on the auxiliary power to run only the cloak and life support once it got to the programmed coordinates.”
“That was very smart,” Jeremy said.
She shrugged. “Well, I had limited options. From my life pod, I watched on the screens as the Mirage cloaked right before going across the Forbidden Zone border. My life pod had already lost propulsion, my fuel was gone, and my life support had just quit as I was also headed to the wrong side of space.
“I ran out of the last wispy bit of fumes right before I crossed the line into District Six. Border control was on me fast, but because my fuel was gone, so was my air. I was nearly blacked out and was fairly incoherent by the time the slavers picked me up.
“I only barely remember a few flashes from that scene. They didn’t ask me anything beyond my name. I didn’t have the capacity to give them one anyway. And you all know the rest of the story post Forbidden Zone capture.”
Vidarr nodded. “My ship had a similar occurrence. The shuttle I ended up being caught aboard was also sabotaged, although we were already cloaked and over into District Six. Bergeron was aboard Sapphire’s vessel when it inexplicably crossed into the Forbidden Zone.”
Angelica narrowed her eyes. “How do you know that?”
Vidarr said, “Because I have my memories.” His loving gaze went to Sapphire.
“I also have my memories.” Sapphire smiled. “I told him about my experience.”
“Both of you remember your lives and what happened to you before being in the Forbidden Zone?” Will asked, adding, “How is that possible?”
They exchanged a look and then nodded. “I guess it’s time for a bit of a confession.” Vidarr took her hand and kissed the back of her fingertips.
“My name isn’t Sapphire. It’s—”
“Olivia Winnick,” Jeremy said before she could.
“You knew?” she asked, her eyes narrowed in question.
“Yes.” He shrugged. “My memories were never taken from me while on the planet. I wasn’t captured by Border Control first, though, either. Nothing happened to my memory. I am interested to know how you two remembered each other once in the gladiator ring.”
“So am I,” Will said.
Olivia took a deep breath and let it out. “When Vidarr showed up in the gladiator ring later, I recognized him, as he did me. This was a few weeks later, of course. We pretended not to know each other. He was the mercenary my father, the trade governor, secretly sent after me. However, my father doesn’t know that Vidarr and I were together before this unfortunate mishap.”
Jeremy smiled with innate understanding. He put his gaze on Vidarr. “And why you volunteered to go in with a team secretly for the Trade Governer.”
“Yes,” Vidarr said simply.
Angelica said, “I’m glad you found each other.”
Vidarr said, “I saw her on my first day. She signaled me not to reveal my identity or that we knew each other.”
“In fact, he took it a step farther. Vidarr acted so repelled by me, Lord Harcourt chained us together in the arena to spite him on the next battle day.”
“That was a part of my plan to get close to you. I was less than pleased to have you chained to me while fighting off hybrid beasts.”
Angelica asked, “How did you keep Lord Harcourt from figuring out your knowledge when you were alone? Did he not film you two together?”
Vidarr cleared his throat as if about to impart difficult information. “I already knew about the post gladiator reward scenario. I’d seen several DMR films of that nature before ever entering the Forbidden Zone.” He looked suddenly exceedingly uncomfortable. “I was part of a team that searched for Olivia, trying to pinpoint the exact District Six planet she was on.
“There are eleven planets in the Forbidden Zone. Only seven are inhabited. Lord Harcourt operates his businesses on one of the smallest planets. The ship we were on was cloaked going across the forbidden line. We stopped near each planet to search for her.
“I didn’t get lucky until we got to the fourth planet. Discovering her chained to a gladiator as his reward for winning, and that her name was now Sapphire. I came down to rescue her, but the shuttle I was on was also sabotaged. The cloak was disabled, we were captured immediately, and I ended up in the gladiator ring two days later without my memories.”
Angelica swallowed hard. Sapphire had been chained to another man? Just like she’d been attached to Will.
Sapphire sucked in a deep breath. “I was just supremely lucky Vidarr found me before I had to sleep with any gladiator winners.”
Angelica blinked. “How did you avoid it for so long? Weren’t you there for several weeks before he arrived?”
She nodded. “Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately depending on how one looks at it—I’d been knocked unconscious when my ship was taken over. Bergeron had wanted me specifically, but I was out cold and bedridden in their sick bay for over a month before being put into the gladiator’s ring.
“In fact, I believe Bergeron was sent back out for someone else since I’d gotten hurt before being brought in. The only gladiator I had to deal with was the one who was so badly hurt from his initial battle, he was unconscious until he had to fight again. I never even knew his name.
“In fact, I had to help the still-bleeding, faltering man into the ring that second time. Gruvat threatened to push the pain button until I agreed. The man was barely conscious and I wasn’t supposed to use the backup weapon I carried to save myself, although I probably would have. I thought I was going to die.”
“What happened?” Angelica asked.
“I left my injured gladiator in a heap and moved away from him as far as the chain would allow. Three small beasts the size of large dogs approached and tore the gladiator I was chained to into pieces before I could even lift the sword I held to help him. I was about to use the sword to try and cut my chain away and escape, and damn the consequences of breaking the rules.
“When I looked up to decide where to run, across the arena, there was Vidarr. I remembered him instantly. There was pain and also my nose bled, but I remembered everything. Vidarr was chained to another gladiator, who had apparently been killed the instant the small beasts entered the ring and attacked.”
“I also remembered her the moment I saw her,” Vidarr said. “I couldn’t cut through the chain, so I killed the beasts attacking me, and dragged what was left of my dead companion across the arena to save her.”
Sapphire said, “Once those beasts were gone, and the others in the ring fell, I became his reward that night. We were signaling each other covertly, and pretending that we’d never met before. I put up quite a fuss at being turned over to
him. We put on quite a show once in our quarters.”
They held hands still. “I was never so glad to feel you in my arms,” Vidarr murmured, drawing her hand to his mouth and kissing her fingers.
Angelica sat between Jeremy and William. She put a hand on each of them, just wanting a connection.
There was a loud thud noise that suddenly echoed through the quiet of the dead ship. The already dim auxiliary lights dimmed a bit more before resuming.
Angelica looked up and said, “Do you want the bad news or the really bad news first?”
Jeremy sighed. “Perhaps we don’t have two days worth of fuel remaining? How much auxiliary fuel do you think we have left?”
“Maybe enough to get close to the border. I’m not certain we can make it all the way cloaked, unless we don’t want to breathe on the way there. The main engines have recyclable fuel cells for perpetual power. But the saboteur locked me out with that stupid battle simulation pass code.”
“Maybe we can bypass it,” Jeremy suggested.
“The captain’s override can’t even do that, frustratingly enough. Unfortunately, the auxiliary power is not recyclable. Typically, the ship carries a three month auxiliary power supply. I suspect we are nearing the end of that fuel source back up. Only Bergeron has the ability to reengage the main engines. But I don’t trust him to do it.”
“So our current choices are propulsion or life support, right? Because I know from experience that most cloaking devices are big power hogs.” Vidarr put his hands to his head, elbows resting on the conference table.
Jeremy said, “What if we choose propulsion and stay in the shuttles until we get across the border?”
“Even that will be a tight fit with the six of us on board.”
Vidarr huffed. “Five if we disregard justice.”
Will asked, “Can you send a message to your ship, Jeremy?”
He looked at the ceiling briefly. “We’d have to de-cloak first, and it would be intercepted by the District Six Border Control ships.”
Sexual Memory [Dark Colony 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 27