Rogue Starship: The Benevolency Universe (Outworld Ranger Book 1)

by David Alastair Hayden

  Siv hurried forward. “So much for the scans from outside.”

  “Sir, sprint now!”

  He ran, but was then forced to slide to a stop as someone stepped out of the bathroom right in front of him. Siv’s eyes widened. Standing less than a meter away was the most striking young woman he’d ever seen. Momentum and surprise threw off his balance and he stumbled, almost falling into her.

  She was naked, her still-damp alabaster skin glistening. Long black hair flowed down her back. Her frame was slender but muscled, her hips wide, her breasts small but pert. She wore only a small medallion that hung from her neck on a silvery chain.

  Siv could barely breathe as she eased past him, her hips swaying.

  “Sir, you need to get moving.”

  “What? Oh, right.”

  He crept forward as quietly as he could, but his eyes remained trained on her. She grabbed the pair of panties off the bed, then dropped them by accident. As she bent over to pick them up, Siv paused, stunned…unable to look away…the danger of his situation forgotten.

  A heart rate alarm notice popped up in his HUD, noting the sudden spike.

  “Sir… Ahem, sir, I took enhanced video of the last several seconds for you.”

  The goddess stood up, but Siv still couldn’t take his eyes off her.

  “That way you can revisit the moment later if you survive. Now let’s get moving!”

  “Yeah…okay.”

  Just as Siv looked away, the door from the hallway opened. A girl, maybe fourteen years old stepped inside. The Ancient amulet on his chest warmed against his skin in response. He froze in place, not even daring to breathe.

  Her head was perfectly bald, which made her arched eyebrows even more pronounced. The rest of her features, while beautiful, were angular and exotic. Despite the fact that she was clearly human, she had a definite alien quality.

  And her eyes…her eyes were not human. Siv had never seen anyone with eyes like that before. Her eyes were the dark of space with a speck of starlight shining in them, and they seemed to hold a wisdom not just beyond her years but beyond the years of any human.

  The goddess turned toward the girl and with casual familiarity said, “Oona, you were supposed to stay in the meditation room.”

  Oona started forward, her shimmery green robe dancing around her. She spoke, and her voice was ethereal…musical…almost mesmerizing. “I got bored and wanted to see if you—”

  She stopped, and those dark, alien eyes locked onto the spot where Siv was standing.

  “Sir, the encrypted mission data is unlocking. Streaming it to your main HUD window…”

  “But—but I’m not in the south wing yet.”

  “I understand, sir. However… Damn. I didn’t expect that.”

  The data had unlocked because Siv stood within sight of the target: the strange young girl, Oona.

  Oona gazed directly into Siv’s eyes and frowned. The amulet’s temperature increased. If it got any hotter, it would burn his skin.

  “Kyra, there’s an invisible man standing right behind you,” Oona said matter of factly.

  Kyralla stiffened. Suddenly she was in motion, spinning around. Her leg went up, and Siv, stupidly, didn’t even budge. Instead he gawked, even as her foot sped toward him.

  The medallion she wore. He should have recognized immediately. His was ceramic and hers metal, but otherwise their amulets were identical.

  Her heel contacted his temple.

  Siv went down without a sound.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Kyralla Vim

  Kyralla landed in a crouch, prepared to defend herself. But the intruder wasn’t going to put up a fight. She had knocked him out. She could tell because his chameleon field was flickering wildly. Something on his back hissed, popped, and belched a tiny trail of smoke. The field failed completely, leaving him exposed and vulnerable, no more a threat than the rug he was now drooling on.

  A smile lit up Kyralla’s face. Without using her precog and without being able to see him, she had landed a perfect kick. Raw instincts, old-fashioned training, and an assumption that he was a human male of average height had served her well.

  But then her face collapsed into a deep frown. A man had broken into the senator’s compound. And he was in their room. Sure, he could be a thief, or perhaps an assassin coming after Senator Pashta. But a sinking sensation in her gut told her that he was not here for jewels or the senator. He was here for her sister.

  She had dreaded this day for as long as she could remember. The secret was out now. Her mission as her sister’s primary guardian would begin in earnest. She took a deep breath. At least the moment hadn’t come up when they were younger and less prepared.

  “Rosie, alert the—”

  “Sister, do not sound the alarm,” Oona said, easing forward, her eyes on the man.

  “He’s an intruder! A threat!”

  “He’s the man I dreamed about.”

  “Are you certain?”

  Oona nodded confidently. “He will save us.”

  Kyralla examined the unconscious man. He appeared to be roughly her age. He wore combat mesh body armor and was equipped with a plasma carbine, an armband force-shield, a neural disruptor, a sensor array, and still more devices she didn’t immediately recognize. And no doubt he had all manner of items tucked into the pouches on his uniform.

  His brown hair was awkwardly slicked back. It wasn’t a good look for him, but maybe it was smart for sneaking around. Overall, his features were attractive enough, but he wasn’t someone that would turn heads on the street. She chewed at her lip. But then…ordinary made for a good disguise. She touched his cheek and pinched his skin. No, it wasn’t a face mask.

  “Rosie, search all databases for this man’s identity.”

  “Yes, madam. Searching…”

  The man stirred. Her pulse quickened. No matter what her gifted sister said, he was a threat until he proved otherwise. She took away his neural disruptor, plasma carbine, and two pairs of force-knuckles she found in a pocket. She tossed all the weapons on the bed.

  As she considered him, her frown continued to spread. This was not the gear of a thief or a casual assassin. This man was armed with extraordinary high-tech military equipment. He had to be an agent of either the Terran Federation or the Empire of a Thousand Worlds. Either one would love to get their hands on Oona, but the dark messiah, Empress Qaisella Qan of the Thousand Worlds, would be especially eager.

  Kyralla retrieved her own disruptor from the nightstand. His was keyed to his palm print so no one else could use it. Then she slipped on a pair of the force-knuckles she’d found in his pocket.

  “Oona, step back. I need to wake him for interrogation. We need to know how he found out about you.”

  Instead of retreating, her sister stepped forward. She closed her eyes and held a hand out over him. As he stirred again, his eyes beginning to flutter, a faint glow shone out from beneath his chest armor and onto his neck.

  Kyralla knelt beside him and loosened his body armor in the front. An amulet attached to a chain floated out and hovered in the air beneath Oona’s hand. The amulet glowed a faint red. And its design… Kyralla rocked back on her heels. The amulet’s design was immediately familiar. It was identical to hers, except that while Kyralla’s was metal, his was ceramic…and authentic.

  “It’s Ancient,” Kyralla gasped, “and active!”

  “He’s the one who will save us,” Oona repeated with confidence. “Though, he is not a true guardian, not yet.”

  “That means we’re in immediate danger, right?”

  Oona nodded. “Tonight, everything will change.”

  The man’s eyes eased halfway open…fluttered again…then sprang wide with alarm. He didn’t look at her or at Oona. His eyes locked onto his amulet.

  “I am Oona,” her sister told him. “And I will not harm you.”

  “I know,” the man replied in a smooth baritone. He seemed surprised by his response.

  His
eyes strayed to Kyralla and raked across her. Then he looked into her smoldering eyes and blushed.

  “Had a good enough look yet?” she seethed.

  He cut short a sheepish smile and shrug.

  “Who are you?” Kyralla demanded.

  “Siv Gendin,” he blurted out. Again he seemed surprised by his response.

  “Rosie, add the name Siv Gendin to your search.”

  “Yes, madam. Searching…”

  “Why are you here?”

  “Do you always interrogate prisoners naked?”

  “Just answer the question,” she snapped.

  “I’m not complaining. It’s quite nice.”

  Her cheeks flushed, and she shoved her disruptor into his face. “Answer me.”

  He held his hands up and nodded toward Oona. “I was sent here to extract her.”

  “Who sent you?”

  “I’d rather not say.”

  Kyralla narrowed her eyes and leaned in. She activated the force-knuckles. As they shimmered and hummed, she danced the back of her left hand up his neck and onto his cheek.

  “Answer me.”

  “You don’t have it in you.”

  “Have what in me?” she asked.

  “What it takes to torture someone.”

  “And you do?”

  He shook his head ever so slightly. “I know torturers. I’ve seen it done. And I’ve experienced it firsthand…as part of my training. The eyes…you can always tell by the eyes whether someone has it in them.”

  She clenched her jaws. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my sister.”

  “I’m sure you would,” he said. “But I don’t think you’re nearly that desperate…not yet.”

  Kyralla narrowed her eyes at him. She wanted badly to hit him one good time with the force-knuckles, just to prove him wrong.

  “You’re afraid of the people you work for,” Oona said.

  “Yes, I am.”

  She dropped her hand, and his amulet drifted back down to lie atop his chest. The glow receded. “Are you going to try to kidnap me?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “Oh, of course you’d say that,” Kyralla responded.

  “Look, I’ve done a lot of illegal things in my life. But I only kill in self-defense, and I don’t kidnap teenage girls.”

  “If you’re not going to continue with your mission,” Oona said, “then you might as well tell us who you’re working for.” She squatted down and placed her palms together as if praying. “Please.”

  He sighed. “I work…I work for the Shadowslip Guild.”

  Kyralla groaned and rubbed her temples with her palms. The Shadowslip Guild was bad news indeed. “Who else knows?”

  “No idea. I didn’t even know what I was sent here for. I couldn’t decrypt my mission objective until your sister was in sight.”

  “What a load of—”

  “He’s telling the truth,” Oona said, her night-dark eyes boring into Siv.

  “I would’ve turned down the assignment if I’d known,” he said firmly, with an edge of bitterness in his voice. “As a guild member I have that right.”

  Kyralla paced around him. Something about his last statement nagged at her. She didn’t think he was lying, and Oona was rarely wrong about such things. But there was something there…something that bothered him more than getting stuck with a mission he didn’t approve of.

  He sat up, a little dazed. “Look, you’re in a lot of danger. Others are going to come for your sister—soon. And my boss thought they’d use forceful means rather than send in a procurement specialist like me.”

  “You mean a thief,” Oona said.

  “I prefer procurement specialist.”

  “How soon do you think they’ll come?” Kyralla asked.

  “Possibly tonight. The information is hot. Whoever—whatever—you two are, the cat must have slipped out of the bag in the last day or so.”

  Kyralla looked down at him. He was eying her lustfully again. He seemed embarrassed by it but unable to help himself. With her adrenaline decreasing, she was becoming all too aware of her nakedness. She threw the disruptor on the bed and pulled on her panties.

  “Stay there,” she told him.

  He nodded his agreement. Ignoring the dress uniform, she headed toward the closet.

  “Madam, it was not easy but I have managed to retrieve data on one Siv Gendin of Ekaran IV.”

  “Go on.”

  “Siv Gendin. Died age eleven. Seven days before the fall of the Benevolency.”

  She opened her closet. “So he’s assumed a very old identity?”

  “I do not think so, madam. Facial recognition using normal aging parameters shows him to be a match to the photos in the records.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I do not know, madam. Plastic surgery perhaps?”

  “That’s a lot of effort to assume the identity of someone who died over a century ago.” Kyralla squirmed into her tight combat mesh uniform. “Where did you get this info?”

  “A secure government database, madam. I used my hack into Senator Pashta’s account, but even then I had to break through two security firewalls to get what I needed. I suspect the information was probably top secret at one point.”

  Kyralla strapped on her weapons belt and holstered her disruptor, her plasma pistol, and her force knife.

  “Madam, the boy was listed as deceased, no cause given. But his father was murdered here in Bei, C-Block. His father was Gav—”

  Kyralla spun toward Siv, her jaw dropping. “You’re Gav Gendin’s son?!”

  A look of surprise crossed his face for a moment, then he nodded. “Yes…I am,” he admitted with a tinge of sadness.

  “Your father was the preeminent scholar on all things Ancient,” Oona said. “I have closely studied everything he ever wrote.”

  “So have I,” Siv lamented, “not that it’ll ever do me any good now.”

  “How is it that you’re alive,” Kyralla said, “one hundred and seven years since you were…listed as deceased?”

  “It’s a long story. I’m afraid you’ll find disappointing.”

  “Then we’ll skip it for now,” Kyralla said, though it was the last thing she wanted to do. She couldn’t stand a mystery. Which was ironic since she loved her sister who was nothing more than a giant bundle of mysteries.

  Siv sighed. “So what now?”

  The way he said it, Kyralla wasn’t sure the question was directed at her.

  “Why do you do it?” Oona asked.

  “Do what?”

  “Work for the Shadowslip. Do you enjoy stealing things from people?”

  “I like the adrenaline, and I’m good at what I do, but I don’t have a choice.”

  “Everyone has a choice.”

  He reached into a pocket. Kyralla trained her disruptor on him instantly. “Watch it!”

  “I’m not armed. I just have something for show-and-tell.”

  Slowly, he drew out a syringe and held it up.

  She eyed it carefully. “Is that Kompel?”

  “Yes, and it’s a particularly nasty strain.”

  “Death is still a choice,” Oona said.

  “Not one I’m willing to take. I have dreams, you know. There are things I want to…” His face fell, and he slumped in dejection. “Well, I had dreams…until tonight.”

  Oona grasped her temples and bent over as if in pain. “Kyra, something’s wrong. I feel a disturbance in the hyperphasic ether.”

  “What the heck does that mean?” Siv asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Oona replied. “I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

  Kyralla rushed to her closet and grabbed her force staff. She strapped it to her back then tossed her sister a spare antigrav belt and her force-shield. Dutifully, Oona buckled on the belt and the armband.

  “The Shadowslip’s going to kill me,” Siv lamented.

  “For failing a mission?” Kyralla asked.

&
nbsp; Eyes flickering in fear, he shook his head. “For helping you escape.”

  “Escape what?”

  Before he could explain, a thunderous explosion boomed, and the entire compound shook.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Siv Gendin

  As the compound’s foundation shivered, Siv considered using the distraction to leap to his feet, but decided against it. Kyralla might not have it in her to torture him, but she definitely wouldn’t hesitate to kick his ass.

  “Sir, the explosion hit the south wing.”

  “I thought you said—”

  A second explosion rocked the compound, and Oona rushed over and clung to her sister.

  “That was the southwest wing, sir. Sorry, I misjudged the timing.”

  “What the hell’s going on?!” Kyralla demanded.

  “Orbital strikes,” Siv answered.

  “How can you know that?” she asked.

  “I have a high-end, military-grade sensor array, and I patched into the senator’s network to boost the signal.”

  “Someone’s bombing us from orbit?” Oona asked incredulously.

  It was clear by her tone that she had spent her life expecting kidnappers, not assassins and assault squads.

  Siv shook his head. “Not bombs. Burst drops.”

  “What?” Kyralla asked.

  “Drop pods designed to penetrate energy shields or building structures, or to kill enemy forces in a landing zone. They’re pretty rare these days. But two of them have hit the building. And—”

  Three smaller explosions occurred, and these were much closer. Siv relayed the information from Silky.

  “Three armored vehicles just rammed into the east wing, sixty-five meters away from our position.”

  “We’re getting surrounded fast,” Kyralla said with worry.

  Siv studied the readouts Silky displayed in his HUD. “I’m showing five groups of armed combatants, with a scattering of security guards and cogs.”

  “Where’s the fifth group located?” Kyralla asked.

  “The north wing.”

  “That’s Senator Pashta’s personal guard. We need to make our way there.” She held her sister out and cupped her face in her hands. “If something happens to me, Oona, then you keep running. Go to Uncle Pashta. He’ll protect you.”