by M. D. Cooper
Kylie entered the command center after a light knock. The interior was dimly lit—just as it had been the first time she had entered with her father.
The holodisplay still showed the wheeling star system, but there was no sign of Garza. Kylie used her upgraded vision and spotted him on the far side of the room, seated on a curved sofa.
He was leaning forward, elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. It was obvious that something was troubling him and Kylie was keenly interested in what it was.
He sat up straighter as she sauntered across the room and placed tray down on the coffee table in front of him. “Kitchen said you haven’t eaten in a while. I thought I’d do my part to make sure you keep up your strength.” Kylie poured him a glass of wine before lifting her cup of coffee off the table and taking a sip.
“Hospitable of you, thank you.”
“May I?” Kylie gestured to the sofa and sat beside him before he could answer. He already had popped a few grapes into his mouth. She settled back and crossed her legs, doing her best to look sultry while Garza ate.
“Your people really care about good food. It’s one of the things that first drew me to them. The simple lives they prefer to live.”
Kylie nodded. It was true, if not rather incongruous when on the flagship of a massive fleet. “The kitchen staff seem to know your tastes. It was no trouble to bring it to the one helping my dad with all this.”
Garza laughed. “Is that all this is? A thank you?”
Kylie shrugged and tossed back her hair. “Well, my father is giving me my own ship. He wants me at the tip of the spear as we liberate the human race. I figured I should get to know you. You’re instrumental in his operation.”
“Revolution,” Garza corrected.
Kylie nodded. “Revolution. It’s been all he and my mother talked about since I was a kid. Now we’re on the cusp of it. It’s a little scary—even if it is exciting.” Kylie sipped her coffee and touched her wrist, releasing a cloud of pheromones.
A moment later, Garza’s left eye twitched and he put his wine glass down, tugging on his collar. Her dose seemed to have worked faster on him than it did on most. She would have thought that a high-ranking general would be more resistant to her chemical persuasion.
“I’m sure it is.” Garza rolled a grape between his fingers before popping it into his mouth. He glanced at Kylie and she wondered if he was uncomfortable looking at her.
“Of course,” Kylie pulled her legs beneath her rolling to the side and, throwing her arm on the back of the sofa, “I’ve had my own ship before.”
“You worked in salvage, isn’t that right?”
Kylie nodded. “Yup, for Maverick. I don’t know if you know him, but he runs the syndicates on Jericho and works for the GFF—well, I guess he runs that now. Anyway, he got me the Dauntless and before that…I was his slave.”
“A slave?” Garza asked with a raised eyebrow.
“How horrible.”
“I learned a lot as a slave. Someday I could show you what I learned…if you need to relax.” Kylie placed her hand on Garza’s shoulder and gave him a knowing look.
“Kylie,” Garza said with a cough. “You’re an attractive woman, but make no mistake. I am not the sort of man that you can sleep with—quaint dose of pheromones notwithstanding—and use to work your way up the ladder. Not to mention how your father would react if he found you sleeping with me—I’m just a bit older than you.”
Kylie’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t seem much older. Certainly not into his second or third century. That was when rejuv could no longer hide all the signs of age.
“I’m my own woman,” Kylie replied, letting the frustration she felt slip into her voice. “It’s been a long time since I cared what my father thought about whoever I slept with.”
“I appreciate what you’re saying but it’d be inappropriate. I’m partnering with your father and entanglements…. Thank you, Kylie. Your company alone will have to do.”
So much for that…
Kylie shrugged and popped a piece of cheese in her mouth. “Suit yourself but if you need some unwinding—which you did when I came in—you know where to find me. I know how to keep a secret, general.”
“I’m sure you do.”
“So what’s got you down?”
Garza finished his wine and set the glass down on the coffee table. “Nothing to concern yourself with. I just got some bad news about an offensive in another system. Not the worst setback, but it does mean that this needs to go off without a hitch.”
Kylie cocked her head to the side. “What other system was that?”
“Not one you’ll have ever heard of.”
“Then what’s the harm in telling me?”
Garza gestured to the planets above their heads. “It’s called New Canaan. It’s out of reach now, though.”
Kylie looked up at the system and its four terraformed planets. Wherever it was, she could see why it was desirable. Four worlds in the habitable zone…no shenanigans to keep them livable. It would be a paradise.
“So if we’re not going to that system, what’s our target?”
Garza flicked a hand toward the holodisplay and it changed to a configuration of planets that Kylie knew all too well. The Silstrand System, capital system of the Alliance.
“Wow, what are we going to do when we get to Silstrand?”
Garza bent over to pick up a slice of cheese and she was unable to see his face as he replied. “Cleanse them.”
Cleanse them? Kylie felt a surge of panic that she tamped down as much as possible. “No quarter given?” she asked.
The general shook his head. “No, your father and I are in agreement that the Silstrand Alliance will not capitulate without an overwhelming show of force. We will strike them here at their capital, demand their surrender, and then stand united against Scipio when it encroaches.”
“When is this going down?” Kylie asked.
“We’re in the final stages of planning it now. I expect to jump in less than a day.”
Kylie couldn’t agree more, and after some more questions and polite conversation, she begged off, citing a need to meet with her brother over an issue.
Out in the corridor, she walked with deliberate calm to the lift. Her mind awash with more questions than answers.
When the doors opened, she stepped inside and placed her hands on the rear wall, lowering her head as she considered her next moves. Hopefully Ricket would be working her new job in the lounge. Kylie considered reaching out to her on the Link, but decided against it. She wanted to make the encounter seem spontaneous.
As the lift doors closed, Kylie heard someone run in, barreling into her and pressing her against the wall. A hand reached up, clamped around her throat and squeezed.
Kylie slammed a foot down on his, then drove her elbow back. He grabbed it and twisted her arm behind her. She grunted and threw her head back, trying to catch her attacker, in the face. But he was fast, letting go of her hand and wrapping one arm around her neck while the other encircled her forehead.
She threw her head back, and bit her attacker’s forearm, eliciting a scream from….
Kylie spun in his grasp, put a foot against the wall and slammed the heels of both hands
into his chest. David flew backward, slammed into the lift’s doors and fell to the ground.
She crouched beside his crumpled form as he shook his head. And snarled at her, rolling away and springing to his feet before he rushed her again. She held out her hands, but he pushed her back into the wall once more.
“Stop it, David!” Kylie kicked him in the shin and he backed away.
A choice her family was making easier all the time.
“I thought things would be great when we got you back. That dad would reward me for my work, but you just can’t do any wrong in his eyes! The golden child even though you left! You went off and did your own thing. Meanwhile, I stayed behind and did everything Dad wanted. I did everything he asked! I even married Hannah because he told me it was the right thing to do.”
“We make our own choices! If you kill me, are you going to blame Dad?” Kylie said as she placed her hands on his chest and shoved him back.
David’s eyes grew wide. “What did they feed you in the space force? You never used to be this strong.” David reached inside his jacket and drew a pulse pistol, aiming it at her chest. “Sorry, Sis. I didn’t bring you back just to lose my position in the fleet.”
“You’re not losing your position in the fleet, David. I don’t want a position and I sure as hell don’t want your ship!”
“Of course, you do. I saw you going to talk to father’s special advisor again—don’t think I don’t know about him. I was in the inner circle until you came back. Father’s the messiah and I want to be at his side when he saves humanity. I need to.”
Kylie felt like he was on the verge of telling her something important. “David, please…”
“You don’t understand, Kylie…Why don’t you understand? No one can say no to father.”
She saw tears forming in his eyes and his hand started to shake.
“David, you don’t have to do this,” Kylie said, raising her hands, palms out. “We can work this out without anyone getting hurt.”
“I can’t, Kylie. I’m sorry, but I have no choice.”
David squeezed the trigger.
Kylie was prepared. She had already released a filament of nano and it disabled the weapon’s firing circuits, then shorted out the charge cylinder. The weapon sparked in David’s hand and he threw it to the ground a moment before it exploded.
“Standard issue space force nano, huh?” David’s eyes narrowed angrily. “Nothing standard about that.”
The lift doors opened and Kylie turned to see a squad of Rebellion Soldiers in the corridor. Head and shoulders above them, stood her father an expression of disappointment on his face.
“Dad,” Kylie stuttered and tried to find the words that would get her out of this new mess. “David, he…”
“Did exactly what I asked of him.”
She stared at her brother as he walked out of the lift. “You…”
“I told him, yeah. Told him everything. I had to. He’s our father, Kylie and what you’ve done to yourself is wrong. It’s evil.”
Kylie sighed and turned her gaze to her father. She could sway him if she tried hard enough. “Daddy, please—”
His expression labeled her a disappointment more than words ever could. “I just wish it hadn’t been true. I wish I had been wrong about you, Kylie. I knew the SSF would corrupt you, but to this level? You’ve been modified. You’re no longer pure.” Peter sighed, his lips slowly parting. “You were going to be an admiral, child. My admiral.”
So, David had set her up. She glanced at her brother and saw sadness in his eyes. He looked like he had been betrayed—which was exactly what Kylie felt.
“I can explain,” Kylie said, searching for something, anything to say.
Peter snapped his fingers and the soldiers stepped forward. “Take her to the detention level. Secure cell.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kylie went willingly as they took her by the arm. “You’re making a big mistake, Dad. A big mistake!”
“When we get to Silstrand, we’ll see who is making the mistake, Kylie, and it won’t be me. Purity is the only way our species will survive. You’re an example of their moral depravity now.”
She heard her father turn to David extoling him for his sacrifice for the greater good. Speaking of the reward they would all reap, knowing that they were all securing a pure future for humanity.
There was no denying it. Her father was a man deluded by his own teachings. He would spread his lunacy as far as possible while Garza funded him and watched the carnage occur.
If there was any truth to what David said, maybe her father was using something more than his rhetoric to control his people. But how could he do that on such a massive scale? The fleet was crewed by over forty thousand people. It wasn’t possible for one man to exert that kind of control.
Not without tech. Very, very advanced tech.
Kylie was going to find out. One way or another.
FINAL MEAL
STELLAR DATE: 09.27.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Barbaric Queen
REGION: Interstellar Dark Layer, Silstrand Alliance
Rogers hated onions, peppers, and anything that required chopping. If he never chopped again, it’d be too soon. Where was Grayson when you needed him anyway? Oh yeah, Rogers had no idea. Something else that didn’t sit well with him.
He dumped the vegetables onto a pan and slid it into the oven when Nadine reached out to him.
Nadine sighed.
Rogers sent a wide-eyed expression across the Link.
Nadine omitted a feeling of hopelessness back at him.
If tech was involved, it could be hacked. Rogers just had to get close enough to Raye to find out what it was.
* * * * *
Rogers passed the dinner service prep off to Winter. Everything was already cooking, just needed to be taken out at the right time. Even Winter couldn’t screw that up. He hoped.
Soon, it’d be time to pull the ultimate con on the crew of the Barbaric Queen. So long as he could get Raye to talk.
With two beers in hand, Rogers saw himself to the bridge. He passed by several of the crew along the way. He got some long looks, but also a greeting or two. He wasn’t sure if they were warming up to him, or if it was the beer he carried. Too many damn people for his liking. R
ogers was looking forward to thinning out the herd.
The bridge was empty, except for Raye, of course. Rogers walked up behind him and Raye tilted his head as he approached.
“Rogers,” his voice was guttural and sounded more like bubbling oil than a man’s speech. How’d he manage to pull that one off?
“Yo, man. Do I walk a certain way so you can tell it’s me?” Rogers plopped in a seat at a nearby console and twisted the cap off his beer.
“You smell like onions.”
Rogers scowled and offered the second beer to the other pilot. “Well, take this. You’ve been holed up here so long. At the very least it’ll lessen my onion smell.”
“It’s beer, it doesn’t work miracles.” Raye extended his hand and Rogers spotted strange filaments on the gloves he wore. “Thanks.” He took a long pull from the bottle and Rogers did the same.
“I’ve piloted a lot of ships, but never seen a setup like this before,” Rogers said.
Raye grunted and set the beer between his legs then leaned his head back. Rogers wondered if he had asked too much too soon.
“C’mon, I promise not to tell anyone. I think your dreads must factor into it. Just pilot to pilot, I’m really curious.” Rogers paused to sip his beer. “I know you can’t see so, how did you know you could pilot this thing when you first came on board? And how did they fly it before they met you?”
“Little man asks a lot of questions,” Raye said. “I’m thinking of eating the little man for breakfast.” He tilted his head toward Rogers and gave a brilliant smile filled with gold teeth.
Rogers chortled and swallowed hard. “If we’re going to work together to get this bounty, we should get to know each other, right?”
The dreads on Raye’s head floated up, snaking through the air as if to detect whether anything untoward was happening. “Galley is almost ready for dinner. I hear the vibrations of forks hitting the deck.”
Rogers sighed. “Deck? I hope Winter rinses them off. But I get it; if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.”
“I’m not sure you’re ready for the answer.” Raye sipped his beer and then seemed to decide to share. “It’s a deep Link between me and the ship. It’s always in my mind, and I’m always in it, feeling it, everything about the ship. It’s like my body.”