Blowback

by Lyn Gala

  “Well, now there’s only one,” Tom pointed out. “The one who is listening to Da’shay.” Eli gave Tom a sharp look, but Tom wasn’t going to apologize.

  Becca made a face. “Only one? You think all these others are slaves? That’s horrible. I don’t like these people much at all.”

  “I…” Eli stopped and took a deep breath. “You don’t understand. One of them was talking to us, but all the others were sharing behaviors—they were all humming or all clicking or all staying behind the leader. I don’t think they’re slaves—I think biologically there’s something…” Eli rubbed his face. “Shit. Captain, I’m not experienced enough or educated enough to know what I’m looking at, but Da’shay’s right that they aren’t going to think in human terms. Psychologically, they aren’t even as close to humanity as full-genta or casslit. All I can say is that this is going to stir things up back home.”

  Da’shay’s head popped up through the hatch. “Time to fly into space full of recognizable diamonds,” she said.

  “About damn time,” Tom said as he hurried to follow. “I say we get clear before someone has a chance to attack us on the ground. I hope we’ve got better weapons and shields than the Kratos or the planetary cannons are going to make this one short escape run.”

  “Thank you for that cheerful thought,” Ramsay complained as he followed. “Becca, can you give me any assessment on the tech or weapons systems?”

  “Honestly? Nope. I’d be making it all up if I even tried.”

  “It just keeps getting better,” Ramsay said with a sigh. “Da’shay, did you at least have a good reason for killing folks?”

  “Yep,” Da’shay agreed.

  “And are you considering letting the rest of them off-ship? I still don’t like the idea of taking prisoners back. Tech is one thing, but you don’t know what it’s like to be a prisoner in war.”

  Da’shay stopped and looked at him, her dark eyes studying the captain. “Yes, I do,” she whispered. “Dark and dark. I won’t lead anyone into darkness. Just making new rivers.” She walked up and rested her fingers on Ramsay’s chest for a second before she turned to Tom with a smile.

  “So, did you really leave Eli on his feet so they’d shoot at him and not me?” Tom asked. Words had always betrayed him, but actions…they were a much better way of telling who liked you well enough to let someone else get killed in your place.

  Da’shay’s smile grew. “Yep. Like you better.”

  “Great,” Eli said with a dramatic sigh. “I’m not going on mission with those two again.”

  “Look at the bright side. I thought we’d be dead a while back,” Becca offered. “And we have a nice ship to fly back if we don’t get blasted out of the air. You have to admit, they have pretty colors on this ship, even if the hallways are about the most annoying things in the universe.”

  Tom smiled. Yep, leave it to Becca to see the bright side of things. Da’shay stopped under a ladder and caught Tom’s leash right under the collar. He focused on her. She pulled him close and rested her forehead on his for a second. “My toy,” she whispered.

  “Yep,” he agreed.

  She smiled and gave him a quick kiss before she let go of his leash and headed up the ladder into another room full of the unknown.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Tom sat in the chair closest to Da’shay and watched as the clouds streaked past the windows, the view more distorted than on the Kratos. “I’d be a lot more comfortable knowing we weren’t about to get blasted out of the air,” Ramsay muttered again. Tom had decided the captain was remarkably bad at following. Da’shay sat in what looked like the pilot’s seat and ran her hands over a large panel of that same blended metal, her fingers touching a dozen little gauges all colored different so it looked like one of those light displays some people used to celebrate holidays.

  “I think she’s got engine room and pilot functions on that,” Becca commented. She was on the other side of Da’shay where she could see the controls. Ramsay and Eli were behind her. They took up five chairs of the sixteen that sat facing the front window. On the Kratos, only two could sit on the pilot’s deck during takeoff, and if four of them stood in the room at once, it felt crowded. This ship was huge compared to the Kratos, but more than that, the rooms were empty, without the corners and walls that made Tom feel as if he had a way to get away from the others.

  “That would explain why she doesn’t need you in the engine room,” Ramsay answered.

  “Um, Captain, she’d have to have someone down there. She’s monitoring the engine, but if she has the controls up here, that means someone’s got to be down there in case she does something crazy like roll the ship. That tends to break a whole lot of seals.”

  Tom’s stomach turned as he remembered the time Ramsay had done that. He’d flipped the Kratos as they were leaving orbit and just about everything that wasn’t bolted down, including Tom and a would-be hijacker, had gone crashing into walls. That wasn’t something he wanted to go through again, but if they did, having Becca in the engine room to patch up the leaks before the engine exploded would be good.

  “So, you’re saying there’s some cati engineer down there? This really is getting better by the second.” The captain complained, but he didn’t get up as Da’shay piloted the ship up into space. Tom held his breath. If the planet was going to shoot at them, they’d do it when the ship was breaking atmosphere. At that moment, the gravity of the planet was still pulling, so the internal gravity couldn’t take over. It made everyone in the ship a little slower to react to panels blowing up.

  The clouds cleared and Tom could practically feel the pop as they slipped free of Nodar. Nodar’s moon was at the edge of the window and Da’shay rocked the ship to the side to avoid its gravity well. Internal gravity came on and Tom could feel his stomach unknot. They weren’t dead. He was mildly surprised.

  “Does anyone else feel like that was a little anti-climatic?” Ramsay asked.

  “Would you shoot down an alien ship?” Eli asked.

  “Me? Hell no. But evidence is that the slaver worlds have known about these cati for a while, for a good long while. It’s been about eighty years since first contact and then trading with pirates before the government seems to have taken over. So, if Nodar’s government knows enough about cati, yeah, they might shoot down a stolen cati ship. Actually, they should shoot us down. They’re about to lose any surprise they might have if there is a war.”

  “Do you think they know war might be coming?” Tom asked. He didn’t think Hou would tell anyone. It seemed more like a genta businessman to use the information to get his own profit out of it.

  Ramsay didn’t answer right away, and when he did, he was oddly hesitant. “Who knows? If Hou and Da’shay are right about the Information Corps staging the whole terrorist attack, maybe not.”

  “Captain.” Eli stood up and caught himself on a low hanging vine-thing. “Could it be that the Corps was trying to arrange a proactive strike because they knew about the cati, or at least suspected?”

  “Whispers of ants in the darkness, ants over the feet,” Da’shay said. She reached over and rested her hand on Tom’s knee.

  “If they had rumors that the slaver worlds were allied with powerful aliens, they might want to act before the alliance could become too established,” Eli finished.

  “That’s an uncomfortable thought,” Ramsay said without disagreeing. “I can’t say I like the idea of our own government sacrificing a war hero just to have an excuse for war.”

  “Do you think I’m wrong?”

  Ramsay stood up and started walking around the large room, exploring the controls set into the walls. This one was easily as large as the room where they’d left Gashta and his group. “Didn’t say that. I just said I’d hate it if it was true. And if it is true, telling people isn’t going to make any of us more popular.”

  Becca gasped. “Captain, you can’t mean we should help them cover it up. IC blew up Berley Tarby.”

  �
��Allegedly,” Ramsay quickly added. “They allegedly blew up Berley Tarby, and I can’t even tell you how much that turns my stomach, but we don’t have proof.”

  “You and Tom saw—”

  “No!” Ramsay cut Becca off, turning to face her. “What we saw is only as reliable as we are. I’m an old war prisoner who should have retired years ago and Tom’s got a service record so bad that six years of me giving him perfect assessment scores doesn’t even come close to evening it all out. IC would shred us. That’s if they even bothered to. The fact is that Tom and I saw what the employee of a slaving, smuggling genta showed us. We have nothing.”

  “So we let them get away with it?” Becca sounded lost. Da’shay left the pilot’s controls and turned to kneel in front of Becca’s chair and catch her hands.

  “Whispering in the dark, actors and cat’s cradle. Little castles made of sand with trails made from little feet. They built a kingdom of sand.”

  “Who? IC? The cati? Nodar?” Becca asked.

  Da’shay looked around, her eyes settling on Tom. “Cati can’t build in sand. One ant follows another. Lay down new ant trails. Follow and follow and follow. Don’t understand leading yourself to follow another.” She smiled at Tom before she turned back to Becca. “When indigo sands shift around them, the trail is lost. Humans build on sand. But the river washes through, washing away their castles. Work, work, work all gone. Plans ruined and the king falls from the tower of his sand castle.”

  Becca looked over toward Ramsay. “If the Information Corps did arrange all this to deal with the cati in secret, flying a cati ship into Corps space is pretty much going to ruin their plans, isn’t it?”

  Ramsay nodded. “I think Da’shay’s right that the king that arranged this whole plot is going to fall out of his tower. We don’t have much to worry about on that front. However, I’m still not happy about turning aliens over to a government that’s primed to hate them. There are going to be parts of the Corps committed to war if she’s right about plots, and I don’t hold with vivisection, no matter who’s on the table.”

  Da’shay stood up. “Not giving them cati. Making new ant trails. Gashta will talk to Corps. We fly the ship.”

  “Wait. What? We’re just playing chauffeur?” Ramsay rubbed his hand over his face. “Are we even giving the ship to the Corps?”

  “Nope,” Da’shay said. “New ant trails. Trade. Talk. If cati start a war, the ant trail will lead more and more to war. If the ant trail leads to trade, more and more will trade. Cati are predictable.” Da’shay managed to make it pretty clear from the tone of voice that she didn’t like predictable.

  “At least the xenospecialists will get a good look at them,” Eli pointed out. “I’m not sure they’re going to understand cati any more than meaiai, but maybe I’m just being pessimistic.”

  “Yep,” Da’shay agreed. “Now everyone out.” Da’shay caught Eli’s arm and started pushing him toward the hatch.

  “What? Why?” Ramsay crossed his arms and looked as if he was going to make a stand about his right to stay on the pilot’s deck. Becca, however, was already following Eli and Da’shay to the hatch.

  “The room below looked real interesting with the tech. Tom, do you think you could recognize weapons systems? Wait. Da’shay, am I going to blow anything up if I start turning on displays down there?”

  “Nope, no explosions. Poke away, but not with Tom. He’s my toy,” Da’shay said as she half-helped and half-pushed Eli into the hatch.

  “Excellent!” Becca might have complained about hating the tech in the ship, but her face lit up at the idea of exploring it. “Captain, you coming?” Becca looked from Da’shay to Ramsay.

  “Wasn’t planning on it, no. I am still the captain, and while I’ve let Da’shay have her way, I’m not going to leave pilot’s deck to her. Does anyone else wonder exactly where she’s planning on taking us once we hit a quantum string?”

  Becca’s mouth opened, but Da’shay put a hand on Becca’s head and pushed her down the ladder before she could say anything.

  “I’m still not leaving,” Ramsay said firmly. That was his tone that meant he had no room for compromise.

  “Then you can watch us have sex,” Da’shay said before she turned toward Tom and gave him a feral look. Tom’s cock got hard just that quick. “Want to see my toy all naked. My mate in all his glory. Scared Gashta. Action from one dismissed as follower. Cati stupid.”

  “Damn right I scared him. I didn’t like how he looked at either of us,” Tom said with satisfaction as he shrugged his shirt off. The thing had more rips than cloth at this point, but one of the sleeves got caught on the slave cuff around his right wrist. He cursed as he worked to get it free.

  “On the other hand, the others might need me downstairs,” Ramsay said as he hurried toward the hatch. “I actually had control over my crew at one point. At least, I’m pretty sure I did.” The captain rushed down the ladder.

  Tom almost laughed at the speed that Ramsay made his retreat. Da’shay walked up to him and started untangling his right cuff, separating the frayed fabric from the metal. She started humming as she traced her fingers over the slave mark.

  “Are you saying stuff with the humming?” Tom asked.

  She stopped and looked up at him, her head tilted to the side. “Knew you’d follow. River cutting through rock, but without rain, it all dries and the work sinks into the ground.” She ran a hand up his stomach, her fingers splaying out as she moved up toward his slave mark. “Could taste your white and brown. Knew you were a good man.”

  “You’re about the first that did then. Most would argue that point.”

  “Most are wrong. Ramsay sees. I see. Becca sees, but thinks you have too many angles and not enough curves. I like your angles.” Da’shay ran her second hand down Tom’s side and let her fingers trail inside the waist of his pants.

  “Does Eli see?”

  Da’shay cocked her head to the said. “Eli thinks you’re an ass.”

  Tom snorted.

  “Thinks you’re a useful ass,” Da’shay corrected herself. “Is glad I picked you and not him.”

  Tom wrinkled his nose at the idea of Eli and Da’shay together. He got a weird image of Eli taking out a notebook and writing comparisons of sex with various women and rating it against Da’shay and her alien body.

  Da’shay laughed. “Would rather have Tom.”

  Tom shook his head and focused on the woman in front of him. She was beautiful, all muscle and strength. Her long fingers traced over his skin and the blue of her body seemed to create even more curves than a human woman. She pressed closer and pulled her dress down while humming softly. The silky fabric slithered over her skin and puddled on the floor so that she was wearing several guns, a knife and not anything else except the holsters for the weapons.

  “There is something sexy about a well-armed woman.” Tom reached for her, his hands cupping her waist as he pulled her close for a kiss. She tasted of salt as he kissed down her throat. “An older, well-armed woman,” he added. He kissed the indentation where her collarbones met.

  Her hands trailed down his arms, and then, before he could react, Tom found himself twisted around and flung toward one of the chairs. He tried to catch himself, but she held one of his arms and he could only break his fall as he landed on the cushion of a chair. Before he could counter her moves, she had caught his other arm and pulled it behind his back. Tom swore, but the two slave cuffs clicked together as Da’shay’s controller reversed the magnetic polarity of one of them. Tom was trapped, his head hanging over the side of the chair and Da’shay’s weight pinning him down. He couldn’t even get his feet under him because of the angle. About all he could think was that he was glad it was his stomach and not his crotch on the chair because his cock was about as hard as it could get.

  Da’shay stroked the back of his neck as Tom struggled to see if she’d left him any room for retaliation. She hadn’t. “An older, well-armed, aggressive and possessive woman,” she
corrected him before she kissed the back of his neck. Tom let his body sag as Da’shay took control, her fingers exploring every inch of exposed skin. He really did like aggressive women.

  Da’shay pulled him up and held his collar tightly in one hand and the waist of his pants in the other as she force-marched him over to a pile of pillows. Tom would have gone down voluntarily, but she didn’t give him a chance as she hooked her foot around his ankle and then gave him a good push, controlling his fall with her hand around his waistband.

  Tom landed stomach first in the pile and Da’shay landed on top of him, knocking the wind out of him. Fuck. Even if he’d tried paying a doxy, she never could have been this damn good. Tom struggled to turn to the side and Da’shay braced her legs and held him easily. Pressing his forehead to the pillow under him, he just tried to keep from coming right there as she quickly stripped off his pants and underwear and then used his pants to tie his ankles tightly.

  “My toy,” she whispered against his neck, her breath warm.

  “Yep, I suppose I am,” he agreed. He flexed his arms and legs, checking the strength of the restraints. Nothing gave.

  “I’ll be back to play with my toy,” Da’shay promised before placing a kiss between his shoulder blades. Tom frowned, not sure what she meant by that, but then she headed back over to the pilot’s station, wiggling her ass far more than necessary. Tom groaned as he realized the game she was playing with him, and tied hand and foot, there just wasn’t a thing he could do about it.

  Instead of sitting at the pilot station, she bent over the chair, giving him a view of her hidden genitals, and Tom’s cock grew painfully hard as Da’shay gave him another wiggle. Maybe it was the fact that she still had her guns strapped on, but no woman in the world had ever made him this hard.

  “You could have some mercy and let me come,” Tom complained.

  She arched her back and looked at him over one shoulder. “Could blindfold my toy.”

  “Aw, fuck no!” Tom loved the restraints and another time he might even enjoy a blindfold, but right now he really wanted to watch her. Her spine was a darker blue than the rest of her body, and as she twisted and turned, it highlighted every movement.