“How could you bring four strangers onto my ship?” he hissed. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”
She tilted her blond head, utterly unfazed by his anger. “After Mina told me they were down on the moon, I wasn’t going to just leave them there. One of them was nearly dead.”
“They’re Fleet soldiers.” Asa said this the way other people might say Goxar raiders or Zinnjerha.
Parri frowned at him. “They’re barely older than Chase and Parker.”
“She knows my name,” whispered Parker, nudging Chase.
“And one of them was the Lyolian,” she continued. “You know he’s too valuable to just leave out there for the Werikosa to take their frustrations out on. He knows things.”
“Did any of them see you?” Asa asked.
Parri gave him a pointed look. “Do you think I’d be that stupid? I hid out in the control cabin while Alix brought them onboard.”
“Who’s Alix?” blurted Chase.
Parri Dietz turned her sparkling smile on him. “Well, hi there, Chase. It’s nice to officially meet you. Alix is my android.” It was the same smile she’d given him on the Kuyddestor, around the time Parker’s chip went missing, and in Lumos, when he was supposed to be meeting Asa’s contact. She’d known the whole time who he was. His brain scrambled to reorient itself to the new reality of those situations, but still it was just too hard to believe that Parri Dietz was an escaped genetically engineered super soldier. Like his parents. Only famous.
“You can’t be one of the escaped soldiers,” he said. “You’re supposed to be hiding.”
Asa sighed. “Would you let that ridiculous guise down so they can see?”
Winking at Chase, Parri Dietz reached up with both hands and massaged her temples in a sharp circle. When she looked up again, the perkiness had vanished, and her face was transformed into something leaner, harder. Her bright eyes became heavy-lidded and dangerous, the cheery smile twisting into a wolfish smirk. Even her eyebrows looked sharper. Chase had to blink several times to reconcile the change—she was still the same person, the same face, but at the same time completely different.
Asa stood beside her. “This is Fighting Unit 2403. Or as we prefer to call her, Nika.”
Parker scoffed. “We’re supposed to believe that’s enough to fool the Fleet?”
“It’s never been a problem,” Parri/Nika said. Her voice was different now, too, dark and liquid. “Facial recognition scanners can’t even tell the difference.”
“But just changing your expression can’t—”
“We’ve gone to a little more trouble than that,” interrupted Asa. “Implants of adamantine mesh under her skin change the appearance of her bone structure, reflective screens in her eyes change her irises. And of course that delightful Parri Dietz voice we all recognize has been carefully calibrated to evoke feelings of trust and stability in almost all types of humanoid. The monsters that created Fighting Unit 2403 won’t see their handiwork in the Parri Dietz that we created. People believe what they want to believe—if you present them a convincing deception, they’ll do ninety percent of the work for you.”
Chase couldn’t take his eyes off her altered face. “Did you do all that to her?”
Asa shook his head. “Nika designed and built the hardware herself. Someone else handled the integration surgeries. She’s got a busy schedule, as you can imagine, but she makes herself available when she can. Like when I need her to steal back a microchip that someone is too close to figuring out.”
“Thief!” exclaimed Parker.
Chase frowned. “That whole time we thought Ksenia was the one who took the chip and left me the note.”
Nika shook her head. “That was me.”
“So, Chase’s parents and the two of you. That’s only four,” said Parker. “What about the last three soldiers from your group?”
“Ah.” Asa glanced at Nika. “One is around and stays in regular contact with both of us.”
“And the other two?”
“They’re dead.” Asa’s expression gave away no emotion.
Nika sat down in the command seat, rubbing her face. “Oh, this feels good. I can’t remember the last time I turned off my implant mesh. If you want, Asa, I can take the two uninjured soldiers with me when I leave, drop them off somewhere remote. The third won’t be mobile for a while, I’m afraid. He’s all yours.”
“We’re taking them back to the Kuyddestor,” said Chase. “Asa’s going to help us take it back from the hijackers.”
Nika dropped her hands from her face. “Excuse me?”
“There’s been a hitch in the plans,” said Asa. “The children are under the impression that I’m going to help them take back the ship from the Werikosa rebels.”
“After he just rescued you from it?” Nika asked Chase in a scolding tone.
“Rescued?” Lilli’s scratchy voice turned everyone’s heads. “We never needed to be rescued. We were fine on the ship—I mean, before the hijacking.”
“You weren’t fine,” said Asa harshly. “You were captives.”
“We were safe!” she fired back.
“You were brainwashed.”
Lilli’s face turned fiery red, but before she could start a response, Asa continued. “We’ve set a course back toward the Kuyddestor. When we get there, we’ll take a cruiser and latch onto the sidewall, cutting a hole through the exterior and extracting you in the thirty seconds available before the Werikosa realize what’s happening. You will be where I tell you to be, when I tell you to be.”
Lilli put her hands on her hips. “I won’t be anywhere unless you promise to fight the Werikosa and give the Kuyddestor crew control over their own ship again.”
Asa stared at her. “You would honestly sacrifice yourself to save that ship? I don’t think you understand—”
“You don’t understand,” snapped Lilli. “I don’t know you. I’ve never even seen you before today. I don’t care if you were made in the same soldier factory as my parents. You never came to our home; they never mentioned you. I’ve known Uncle Lionel my whole life. He’s my family. So if you want to keep me alive, you’ll keep him alive too.”
Impressed with the steely strength in his sister’s voice—even as his gut plummeted at her suggestion that she would let herself go down with the ship—Chase jumped in. “You think that Captain Lennard is just another Fleet officer, but he’s different. He knows there are some bad people in the Fleet—people bad enough to destroy Trucon and blame it on Maurus and the Karsha Ven. After all of you escaped from the Fleet, my parents were trapped and he helped them find a safe place to hide. He was their friend.”
“I see,” said Asa. His gaze rested on Parker for a moment, and he exhaled in a short, loud burst. “Fine. I will help you save the Kuyddestor, but on one condition: After the ship is secured, all of you will come with me. Your place is here, not living under the roof of the establishment that killed your parents.”
“No,” said Lilli automatically.
Asa clenched his hands like he wanted to shake her. “I will not negotiate—”
“Asa, you have the social finesse of a man who’s spent the last decade surrounded by androids,” interrupted Nika smoothly. She turned to Lilli. “But you’re being foolish, my dear. Even if Captain Lennard is your family, like you say, he can’t keep you safe like Asa can. Look what’s happening to his ship right now.”
“But that’s only because—” Chase began.
“He’s a Fleet captain, Chase,” said Asa. “Even if he’s as anti-Fleet as you say—especially if he is—he’s a target. He will always be within their striking distance. And as long as you stay close to him, so are you.”
Chase dropped his head and took a deep breath. He hated to admit it, but Asa was right. Of all the places in the universe to hide from the Fleet, aboard a Fleet starship was possibly one of the worst. He knew that Captain Lennard cared deeply about him and his sister, that he would do anything to protect them, but was he the
best person to do that?
“Are you going to lock us up in some compound like where you had Parker?” he asked.
Asa considered this. “Not necessarily. We can negotiate.”
With every second he spent deliberating on this, time was slipping away for the Kuyddestor crew. Chase had to make a decision. “Fine,” he said. “We’ll go with you. Lilli, say you promise. You too, Parker.”
“We’ll go with you,” said Parker immediately. “I promise.” Chase glanced at him, frowning. He’d expected some—okay, more than some—resistance from Parker. Was he saying this for the good of the crew, or was there some other reason he was suddenly okay with leaving the Kuyddestor?
Lilli balked. “We belong with Uncle Lionel,” she repeated.
Chase took her by the shoulder. “I don’t know if we do or don’t belong on a starship. But this is the choice he’s giving us, so either we promise to live here, or the Kuyddestor is lost—and that means not just you, but everyone on the ship. Do you really want to make that decision for them?”
With a shudder, Lilli shook her head, angry tears filling her eyes, and vanished. Chase looked up at Asa. “We’ll come with you as soon as we know the Kuyddestor is safe.”
Asa nodded and began entering information on the console in the desk.
“Well, that was interesting,” said Nika dryly. “I do wish I could come along and help.”
“You can’t blow your cover,” said Asa, not looking up from the desk. “Get out of here and go do your thing.”
Nika nodded and walked toward the door. “I’ll be watching and reporting,” she said. “Be safe out there, soldier.”
* * *
As they walked back to the medical bay, Chase nudged Parker. “Are you really okay with going with Asa when all this is over?” he asked.
Parker shrugged, glancing up at Asa. “Might not be so bad this time.” Something had changed, but Chase couldn’t figure out what.
Vidal had been pacing beside the submarine apparatus, but she whipped around as soon as they entered the medical bay. Her eyes narrowed at Asa. “Who are you? What kind of ship is this?”
“I’m Asa Kaplan,” said Asa. “And this is my personal vessel, nothing more.”
“But who are you? All I know is that some unidentified cruiser with an android pilot rescued us from the bottom of a lunar mine shaft and brought us here.”
“That’s as much as you need to know,” said Asa.
Parker had crossed the room to peer inside the window of the medical machine where Derrick lay. Chase joined him, but the inside was dark and there was nothing to see.
“You must have been fairly close by,” commented Maurus. He still sat in the chair, but his arm was no longer encased in the mending machine, and someone had given him a fresh shirt. “I have to know, did you set up that whole Lumos thing so you could get your hands back on the kids?”
Asa ignored the question. “We’re going back to the Kuyddestor, and I need your help figuring out the safest place to board the ship.”
Vidal shook her head. “They’ll blow you out of the sky as soon as you come close. If there was a way to break through the ship’s scramblers and teleport on board, that might—”
“Not an option,” said Asa. “Fleet scramblers are impossible to bypass. The only place you can teleport onto a Fleet ship is the teleport chamber, and that will be locked down and crawling with Werikosa.”
“But how are you planning to get anywhere near the ship?”
“We’ll take a small cruiser, and we’ll fold right up beside it.”
Maurus scowled. “That kind of precision is impossible with a fold. Between the ship’s movement and the expansion factor, you’ll end up splitting the Kuyddestor wide open and taking your own head off in the process.”
“Normal ships can’t do it. Mine can. We’ll have to board quickly, but we’ll be too close to the Kuyddestor for them to be able to fire on us. We’ll just have to be ready for what’s coming at us from the inside.”
Maurus gave him a skeptical look. “We’re going to need a lot of firepower.”
Good thing we’re planning this with a weapons dealer, thought Chase.
“Two of my androids will come with us. We’ll need to get to an onboard computer to fight the hack.”
“I’ll take care of that part while you fight off the Werikosa,” said Parker.
“Oh, you’re not coming with us,” said Asa quickly. “I can handle the trojan.”
“Before you’re fighting off a herd of angry Werikosa, or during?” snapped Parker. “I can fix the hack while you fight.”
Asa shook his head, white-lipped and furious. “Absolutely not. I will take care of the trojan and get Lilli off the ship with my androids.”
Vidal frowned and pointed. “She’s right here.” With a start, Chase saw that Lilli had rejoined them at some point, and stood sullen in the corner of the room.
Mina stepped into the medical bay. “Prep Scada-One for departure,” Asa told her.
“You’re going to want to move quickly,” said Mina. “By my revised calculations, the Destrier will arrive in two hours and twenty-one minutes.”
“What?” asked Maurus, shocked. “That’s impossible. They were coming from the Ichis system—it should take them at least another day.”
“Looks like Asa isn’t the only one whose ship defies expectations,” said Parker.
“Contact them and tell them not to attack the Kuyddestor,” said Chase.
Asa shook his head. “I will not bring more attention to us than I have to. We can do this before they get here.”
“You’ll have to,” said Mina. “Because the Kuyddestor’s just started its attack on Storros.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Asa led the entire group swiftly down the hall to a conference room, where he leaned over a console, tapping in commands. A 3D image of the Kuyddestor popped up over the top of the long table, spinning slowly around.
“Give us the current situation, Mina,” he said.
“The Kuyddestor is firing missiles toward the surface of Storros, targeting its major cities,” said Mina. “So far the Storrian defenses have intercepted every one, but their ships are sticking close to Storros. They won’t be able to get any good shots on the Kuyddestor, which seems to be keeping a close orbit around Rhima.”
“What made the Werikosa start their attack?” asked Vidal.
“I think if we want to know what the Werikosa are thinking, we should ask the woman who helped orchestrate this hijacking.” Asa turned to Mina. “Have Jericho bring her to us.”
A few minutes later, Jericho entered with Ksenia, who walked freely beside him. She smoothed her dark hair back off her face and straightened her back.
“Ms. Oriolo, your Werikosa cohorts have begun their attack on Storros. Do you know what their plan is?”
Ksenia said nothing, one corner of her mouth tilting upward.
“How many Werikosa are on the ship right now?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t have anything to do with that part of the planning.”
“Who hacked the ship’s computers and helped the Werikosa take over?” asked Parker.
“That information wasn’t shared with me.”
“Well aren’t you just about useless?” snapped Vidal.
“We’ll find a use for her,” said Asa. He motioned for Jericho to rejoin them. “Take her down to Scada-One and prepare for departure. Ms. Oriolo, you are coming to the Kuyddestor with us to negotiate the surrender of the Werikosa.”
Ksenia raised one eyebrow and turned to leave with the android.
“And Ms. Oriolo,” added Asa, speaking at her back, “I don’t know what kind of reward you were expecting to get when you helped plan this sabotage, but I would suggest you begin lowering your expectations.”
After a pause, Ksenia kept walking out of the room, never looking back.
Asa turned back to everyone else, cracking his knuckles against the console. “Okay, here’s th
e plan. Once we get access to the ship, I’ll go on board with Mina and the lieutenants, while Lilli will immediately leave the ship with Jericho. You two”—he indicated Maurus and Vidal—“will try to free your trapped crew and arm them, while I go to the bridge with Mina and Ksenia to try negotiating with the rebel leader to cease the attack on Storros and surrender the ship.”
“Negotiating?” asked Maurus. “You think that’s going to work?”
Asa cut him a sharp look. “I can be very persuasive.” He pointed at a spot low on the bottom of the virtual Kuyddestor. “We’ll fold up against the hull here, clamp an airlock onto the hull, and use a plasma saw—”
Chase glanced over at Parker, who was also frowning. “What about us?”
“You?” Asa glanced up from his diagram. “You wait here for Jericho to return with Lilli.”
“No,” said Chase. “We’re part of this. We’re coming with you.”
Asa stabbed his thumb at the console, and the 3D image of the ship vanished. “This is warfare. I will not put the two of you at risk.”
Parker tipped his head at Chase. “He’s never at risk. You know that.”
Asa’s hard blue eyes looked Chase up and down, analyzing him with a mercilessly analytical stare. “Fine. Chase, you’re in charge of making sure your sister comes with us. Parker, you stay here.”
In truth, Chase didn’t want Parker to come along either. It would be too dangerous for him. But this was just like the argument with Captain Lennard, when Parker fought for the right to come with the expeditionary squad to Lumos. He’d lost that battle but gone anyway, and what would Chase have done without him? “Parker should come. We’ll need him.”
“This is not up for negotiation,” said Asa harshly.
“Yes it is.” Chase glanced at Parker, and then at Lilli. “We don’t trust you.”
Parker continued. “What’s to make us think you’ll really do what you promised and not just grab Lilli and run?”
Asa glared at them. “My word.”
Parker scoffed. “You run a weapons syndicate selling particle dispersers to slum lords. Your word isn’t enough. Besides, I know that mainframe like the back of my hand. I’ve been skimming through it for months. Maybe you know a thing or two about computers, but I know exactly where to look for this thing.”
Lost Planet 02 - The Stolen Moon Page 20