“Sure.”
He disappeared for a few minutes and then came back with a tray filled with standard food rations. It wasn’t fancy, but it would do. He opened the small access door in the bars and passed me the tray.
“Thanks. Good luck with the mission.”
“Fuck Queen Raya,” he said before turning on his heel and leaving me behind.
Under the electronic controls of the system.
I ate as quickly as possible—because I was hungry and would need sustenance when I flew with Mia—and then set the tray on the bed. I picked up the knife. It was dull and probably wouldn’t even pierce someone’s skin, but it would work. The walls and ceiling were a smooth white. The floor had a glossy dark finish that matched the rest of the battleship.
There would be a control panel under one of these floor tiles that activated the locks on my prison cell’s bars. That activated and controlled everything in this area. I needed to find it and hack into the locks to get the hell out of here and back to Mia.
I’d hacked the Starfighter Training Academy. I could hack this.
Almost an hour later, I did. The cell door opened, and I took off at a run. I had to hope I’d get to the docking bay in time to meet Mia before she took off.
Fortunately the entire battleship was in launch prep mode. I wasn’t the only one running. When I got to the docking bay, I slowed. None of the ships had left yet. But the mechs were either walking away from their craft or doing the final steps on their checklists.
I went to the prep rooms where the flight suits were kept and grabbed mine, changed into it in record time. I activated my retractable helmet to hide my face as I jogged to the Phantom, went up the ramp.
Mia and some asshole I’d never seen before were going through flight pre-checks.
“You’re in my seat,” I said.
Mia gasped and looked over her shoulder to see me. “What the hell? Kass?”
With a simple command I retracted my helmet so that it once again rested inside the flight suit’s collar. “Pilot, I said you are in my seat.”
The pilot looked confused but ready to argue. I couldn’t blame him. I was willing to fight to sit next to the most talented, beautiful Starfighter MCS I’d ever met.
Rather than waste time arguing, I punched the pilot in the jaw, satisfied to see I hadn’t lost my touch. He slumped in the seat, unconscious.
“Kass, what the hell are you doing?”
Unbuckling his flight harness took less than a second. Once he was loose, I yanked the pilot out of the chair, walked to the edge of the ramp, and rolled him down. “Hey, Mechs!” I yelled for Arria and Vintis, who came running.
“Is there a problem?” Arria asked. “Captain Sponder was already down here with that commissioner, demanding to take a look at the ship. Said you might have done something to the system controls? Sabotaged it or something?”
“He’s an asshole, and he’s full of shit.” I pointed to the unconscious pilot. “We had an extra passenger. Get him out of here and take him to medical, would you?”
“Sure thing.” Vintis lifted the pilot over his shoulder with a grin and walked away. Once I knew we were clear, I waved to Arria, hit the button to close the ship up tight, and took my place next to my Mia.
Mia’s jaw gaped, then closed, then opened again.
I leaned over and placed a hot, lingering kiss on those speechless lips. “Miss me?”
“What do you think you are doing?” She didn’t sound like she’d missed me. She sounded angry.
I activated the launch sequence and buckled into my seat as the Phantom lifted from the floor of the launch bay. “You didn’t really believe I was going to let you go out there all alone, did you?”
“I wasn’t alone.”
“Yes, love, you were.”
Mia didn’t argue, and I took that as a good sign. I jumped on the opportunity to speak my truth to the only person whose opinion of me mattered.
“Mia, I hacked into the training program because Sponder refused to approve my application to the Starfighter program, despite the fact that I was more than qualified. But that’s all I did. I am not a cheater or a liar, not about things that matter. Every training mission we ran together, we completed. You are my pair bond, and I am not giving you up. I don’t give a fuck what Sponder claims. When we get back from this mission, I’ll find a way to prove my innocence and destroy that asshole’s career, for good this time.”
“This time?”
We shot out into space, and I turned the Phantom toward Xenon. “Long story.”
“We have time.”
No, we didn’t. We were heading into battle, and I did not want to spend the entire time talking about that fucker, but… “Arria said the commissioner and Sponder were down here, looking at the ship?”
Mia nodded, her mind clearly beginning to focus on the mission. “Sponder was actually on board when I arrived to meet the pilot you just punched out.”
I grinned. “Don’t remember his name, do you?”
Finally she smiled. “No. Is that a bad thing?”
“Not to me.” I tried to think of any reason that Sponder would be on our ship, and came up with nothing.
“Was Commissioner Gaius with him?”
“Sponder? No. He was alone when I got here, but the mechs saw the Commissioner here. He must have been gone by that time I arrived.”
Mia turned away from me, her attention completely focused on her screens. Which was fine with me. I didn’t want to talk about Sponder or Gaius or cheating, and I didn’t want Mia upset right before such a critical mission.
But once this mission was over? Things with Sponder were going critical, and I had no intention of losing that battle.
This time, I wouldn’t hesitate to take the fucker down.
10
Mia, The Phantom
* * *
Xenon Alpha, the moon filling our view screens, was beautiful. Unlike Earth’s moon, this one rippled in waves of reds, oranges, and browns, more like Saturn than the bare rock I was used to, Earth’s moon was always glowing silver with darker craters. I had no idea what this one looked like from Xenon itself, but the dark black spot we were heading toward reminded me, not of the caterpillar I’d imagined in the briefing, but now a black leech sucking the moon’s blood. I had no idea where that creepy image had come from, but I didn’t like this place. It felt… wrong.
“How long until we’re in range?” I asked.
“An hour, give or take.” Kass sat at the pilot’s controls as I monitored every bit of energy, frequency, or light approaching or leaving the moon. His presence, while I was still upset with him, somehow helped me breathe. The last mission had been exciting, a chance to prove our skills, a wild ride in outer space with no one at risk but ourselves.
This was completely different. Fighting squadrons from the Battleship Resolution were on standby waiting for us to take down the odd magnetic field being generated on this moon. Starfighters. Shuttle pilots. Titan teams. And the people on Xenon, their entire population was less than the number of people who lived in one suburb of Berlin.
Not a lot of people by planetary standards. But when every life on that planet depended on one Starfighter MCS team to liberate them from Dark Fleet control? Depended on me?
Kass and I were literally the only MCS team they had. We were alone out here. Truly alone. I felt like I was breaking an entire city full of innocent people out of a maximum-security prison, and if I messed this up, they might all die. Thousands and thousands of prisoners, dead with the push of a button.
Did they have those zapper collars on their necks like some of the freakish science fiction movies? Did Queen Raya have a big red button on her throne, one push and everyone’s heads would explode?
“I don’t like this.” Normally I would have kept the thought to myself, but this was Kass. After all the missions we’d done together in the game, he wasn’t going to ignore my instincts.
“We’re almost there,” he r
eplied.
Our comms lit up, and I looked at Kass, held his gaze as I answered. “MCS Becker.”
“Phantom, this is Group Five Leader.”
Oh hell. General Jennix.
“Copy that, Group Leader. Go ahead.”
“Commissioner Gaius’s prisoner escaped from the brig prior to mission launch. We have unconfirmed reports that there is a pilot in medical claiming to have seen him on board the Phantom prior to launch. Can you confirm?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, General.”
“I see.” There was a long pause, and I waited, watching Kass. He clenched his jaw, then reached down to his controls and activated his comm.
“General, this is MCS Remeas. I was unable to allow MCS Becker, my pair bond, to go into battle alone, sir. I will turn myself in once we return to base.”
“MCS Becker, are you all right? Are you able to complete the mission?”
“Affirmative. The mission is a go,” I said.
“Very well. I will deal with both of you after this is done. Jennix out.”
I bit my lower lip as I turned my entire focus, my existence to the screens and code in front of me. And then… I couldn’t hold my tongue a moment longer. “Kass?”
“Yes, love.”
Damn it, why did he have to call me that when I was ready to rip his head from his body and shove it down his throat for lying to me. For humiliating me. For making me doubt everything and everyone, including myself.
“I hacked into the training program,” I admitted. All I’d been feeling for him had been anger, but my voice was quiet now. Almost… done in. “I saw the evidence myself. Every single mission we completed had been tampered with. Why did you do that?”
“What are you talking about?” He turned in his seat to stare at me. Eyes wide, stunned. He didn’t have an easy way about him. He was uncomfortable. Angry. Off-kilter, which was a new and unusual look from him.
“I hacked into the Starfighter Training Academy system. I pulled up our training records. Every single mission we completed—every single one, Kass—had been modified to make the tasks easier to complete.”
He shook his head in complete denial. “No.”
“Why did you do that?” I would ask the same question over and over until he answered me.
He swallowed hard, stared at me until he was sure I was looking—or mesmerized. “I vow to you, bonded one, I did no such thing. If I were going to cheat the system, do you really think I would be stupid enough, or sloppy enough, to leave that obvious a trail?”
I took a moment to consider that. I’d hacked into that program in less than an hour. I’d found the data I was looking for within minutes once I was in. I could have just as easily deleted the mission modifications and erased my digital footprint. It would have been simple to complete. I could have erased everything, cleared Kass’s name, and Sponder would have nothing to go on. Kass would have been proven innocent. Guaranteed.
If I could make him look innocent in less than ten minutes, it made sense that someone else could make him look guilty just as easily.
Why hadn’t I thought of that while I’d been in there?
Because I was being emotional, not logical. I’d doubted myself from the start. All Captain Sponder had to do was wave a red flag in front of me and I’d charged like the proverbial bull. Hurt. Angry. Betrayed.
Poor little Mia, lied to again.
Not good enough.
Bad judgment.
Shit. I’d let that asshole Sponder lead me around by the nose like a naive first-year recruit. All because my heart was involved. Because when it came to Kass, there was no logic for me. Because I’d believed in Sponder over Kass. God, I loved him. I wanted him. And I wanted him to believe in me so much it terrified me. The first chance to jump ship and I’d taken it.
No more.
“Mia?”
I looked at Kass with new eyes. “You are telling the truth.”
He sighed. His shoulders relaxed. All the tension left his body.
“Yes.” The unspoken DUH wasn’t said aloud, but I could see it in his eyes. Along with the hurt I’d caused by doubting him. And myself.
“Why does Sponder hate you so much?” I asked finally.
Kass sighed and turned away from me to check the ship’s controls. “He’s an ass. He’s always been an ass. Once, he harassed a female shuttle pilot. A friend of mine. He physically assaulted her. She fought him off, reported the incident. Nothing happened. Commissioner Gaius is his uncle.”
“Uncle Gaius saved him?” So Sponder was a silver spoon who hadn’t earned his rank or his pilots’ respect.
“He got a slap on the wrist, and she got written up for disobeying a senior officer. He was making her life a living hell after that, so I hacked into the system, downloaded the video files of his attack from the top-level security feed, stashed them away, and transferred her to another base, as far away from him as I could get her.”
I widened my eyes at all he’d done for a friend. “And he knew you did it?”
He shrugged. “Well, the transfer order was in his name, but he knew it was me. I told him. He wanted her back under his control. He was totally obsessed. When he tried to have her returned to Eos Station, I went to his office, told him I had video of his attack, and that if he went near her again, I’d ruin his career.”
“Why are you still under his command? When was this?”
Kass chuckled. “Right before he denied my application and I had to hack into the Starfighter Training Academy program. About a year ago.”
“Why didn’t you leave? Ask for a transfer? Or transfer yourself out like you did your friend?”
“He hates me, but he couldn’t touch me, not when I had the video evidence to ruin him and his uncle since he was the one who made it go away. There were too many other vulnerable new recruits under his command that might have been next.”
“So, you watched over the sheep.”
“What is a sheep?” He frowned.
“Never mind. I believe you. But that’s not enough. Not for this. He’s hated you for a year but never tried to have you locked up before. He somehow hacked into the system and modified our training data. What do you think set him off?”
Kass stared into the dark emptiness of space for long minutes. “I don’t know. Maybe the audit we brought down on him? Maybe he’s afraid that if the tech and security teams go digging into his records, they’ll find out what an ass he is.”
“Maybe.” I casually monitored the data streams coming from Xenon Alpha as I allowed my mind to wander. With his uncle a Velerion commissioner, I doubted Sponder was too worried about Kass taking him down. So, was he worried about the audit General Jennix had threatened him with? Was he hoping that by framing Kass, the audit would be canceled? Or maybe that his uncle would be able to pull some strings, have the audit canceled, and the general would have no reason to protest?
Something didn’t add up. Just like I’d thought earlier in our quarters.
I linked the Phantom’s data stream back to Battleship Resolution and waited as the much more powerful battleship’s comm system synced with Velerion and the Hall of Records.
Captain Sponder was hiding something, and I was going to find out what that something was.
For the first time I felt my cipher implants working alongside my mind, speeding up the transfer of information, making it easier for me to communicate with the ship. I took a moment to adjust, to become accustomed to the feel of it, like my brain had become wireless and connected directly to the data streams. For a moment I couldn’t move, shocked by the ease of the data transfer and the speed of information moving through my mind. But I was also grateful. I had a lot of records to search and not a lot of time to do it.
Kass was quiet as I worked.
Fifteen minutes later I froze in my chair. I had it. I fucking had the proof we needed to take Sponder down. “Kass, who is Delegate Rainhart?”
Kass scoffed. “A traitor. You
r friend Jamie and her pair bond, Alex, found out recently that he was the one who gave Queen Raya the details about the Starfighter base that had been destroyed. He betrayed Velerion and gave the Dark Fleet exactly what they needed to wipe out almost all our Starfighters and cripple Velerion’s defenses.”
Oh shit.
“What’s a delegate?”
“They are appointed by the commissioners. Kind of like Graves to General Jennix. They work for the commissioners as trusted appointees to negotiate, meet with constituents and merchants, take care of a lot of the day-to-day responsibilities of the commissioners who are elected to the Hall of Records.”
“Like their chief of staff?”
“I am not familiar with that office.”
“How long do we have?” I was anxious, the adrenaline flowing after a puzzle like this had been solved. We had the answer, and we had to do something about it. Now.
“Five minutes, tops. Find anything good on Sponder yet?”
“As a matter of fact, I—”
BOOM!
“Mia! Hold on!” Kass’s shout accompanied the Phantom rotating suddenly. I was strapped into my seat, but even in space, inertia was real and my head was thrown back.
“What the hell?” I shouted as an unnatural flare of heat washed over me. The control station in front of me caught fire and was immediately put out by the fire suppression system.
“Kass?”
“Rebooting the system,” Kass replied, his voice even.
Within seconds I had my screens back and everything looked normal. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Anything on scanners?” I asked, my gaze roving over everything in sight looking for enemy ships or anything that could have been the source of the attack.
“No.”
That made no sense. The ship rattled around us, shaking like we were in the middle of an earthquake. I checked my monitors and could not believe what I was seeing. “Kass, the entire right side of the Phantom is gone.”
“I know.”
He knew? “Were we hit?”
“Not from the outside.”
Starfighter Command Page 10