Stealing Mercury (Arena Dogs Book 1)

by Charlee Allden

  The younger woman dressed differently from the others. She was the bar worker, he realized as she disappeared through an interior door, leaving only the older woman to greet them. The appearance of the woman, who had to be the captain, startled him. He’d seen dark skinned humans before, but none as dark as her. The resemblance to the blue-black skinned Mothers was undeniable, but also meaningless. She was clearly human. Her tightly curled silver hair covered her skull, unlike the Mothers with their slick skulls. And her figure registered as typical human. Her clothes seemed more formal than the others and she wore a shiny silver star on her collar.

  “Mercury.” Samantha’s hand rested on his arm as she pulled his attention back to her. “This is Captain Amanda Artane, owner of the Gwendella.”

  He lifted his chin in acknowledgement and the woman held out her hand. He knew what she wanted, but it was a gesture made amongst humans. She kept her hand out, unbothered by his hesitation, until he accepted the gesture. She shook the hand he offered and gave him a warm smile.

  “Good to meet you,” she said.

  Mercury released her hand and breathed deeply, subtly searching her scent for deception, but found none. “Samantha tells me you helped her gain her skills as a pilot.”

  Lines crinkled at the outside edges of her eyes. “I suppose I did.”

  “You have my thanks then.”

  The captain’s mouth opened as if she would speak then closed.

  Samantha motioned to his pack brothers, but didn’t move aside to allow them to approach. “This is Carn and Lo.”

  They exchanged nods of recognition and then the captain sat back down and motioned to the chairs nearby. Her crewmembers went to the far end of the table where the young woman had returned with a pitcher of drink and began to refill their mugs.

  “It’s good to see you, Samantha.” The older woman crossed an ankle over the opposite knee and rested one hand on her boot. “I was sorry to hear about your father.”

  “Thank you, Captain.” Samantha’s spirits no longer darkened as they had before when her father had been mentioned. “And thank you for coming.”

  The woman’s lips turned downward, making her face seem sterner. “We were about to leave Sedona when I got your call. Between my respect for your father and my affection for you, delaying departure by a day was an easy call. Especially since I’d seen this.” The captain slid a thin flexible sheet across the table. “This bulletin is bad news. You and your friends are in a heap of trouble, Sammie.”

  Knock sat silent on the other side of the captain.

  Samantha touched the corner of the sheet and it lit up with images of each of them and some text Mercury couldn’t read. Samantha huffed and her spine softened. She looked up to the captain. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do about this, but I have a more important favor to ask you.”

  “The one you mentioned in your call.”

  Samantha nodded.

  “Okay, tell me. The whole thing. Even the parts you think I can’t help with. You might be surprised what I can do.”

  “First, Captain. I’m sorry, but why is Knock here?”

  The captain bristled as she turned and frowned at Knock. “He was waiting at the port when the shuttle brought us over from Sedona.”

  Knock leaned forward. “I have almost as many connections in this port as you do, Sammie. I heard you were up to something and I’m here to help. If I can. And to warn you that Shred knows you’re here. He’s prepping the Bucket for departure first thing tomorrow.”

  Samantha frowned, but she nodded then turned her attention back to the strip of flexible material. “It’s even worse than this, Captain. Even if I could clear this up, I’ll be losing my pilot’s license. They know I’m part Cerrillian.”

  The captain slammed a fist against the table. “If it was that cretin, Shred, I’ll—”

  Samantha gasped. “I didn’t know you knew.” She visibly shook off her surprise. “No it wasn’t Shred. Two of the Roma employees found out the old fashion way. Observation. And if they haven’t spoken up about it yet, it’s only because they haven’t had an opportunity. You can be certain they’ll speak up when they get the chance.”

  “Well,” said the captain. “Looks like the only way to fix this is to get you a new identity and to get your friends here as far away from Roma as possible.”

  Samantha jerked as if she’d been struck by a lash. “Are you saying…?”

  “That I can get you in touch with the person who helped your father forge your papers the first time?” The lines reappeared at the corner of the woman’s mouth. “I wasn’t always old and conservative. Your father and I had to walk on the wrong side of the law a time or two when we were younger.”

  Samantha fell back in her chair, with a laugh. “You and he were runners together. I had a feeling.”

  The captain nodded. “But I don’t like to let that part of my personal history get around. Earth Alliance still has open warrants for anyone who helped the refugees during the refugee uprisings. The fewer people that know a secret, the easier it is to keep.”

  “Of course, but I have to tell you that’s part of why I contacted you.”

  “So, tell me what you need, Sammie. Whatever it is, you’ll have it along with a new identity and transport for your friends.”

  Mercury’s guts twisted. “We aren’t going anywhere without Samantha.” He wasn’t letting anyone separate them. Only Samantha could do that and he didn’t think he’d be able to allow it. The captain offered her a way to return to being a pilot. Why would she choose to stay with him when he could offer her only danger and a life of struggle?

  Carn stood, his chair scraped loudly across the floor as he shoved away from the table. “We aren’t being sent anywhere.”

  The crew members at the far end of the room all got to their feet, but the captain remained seated and waved them off. “It’s an offer gentlemen, not an edict. You’re free men here. You’ll do as you choose. I didn’t help relocate thousands of refugees because I was looking for folks to oppress.”

  Samantha turned to face Carn. “I know you have no reason to trust me. I know I’m not a Dog. But I do keep my promises, Carn, and the captain may be able to help me do that.”

  Carn eased back into his seat. “I didn’t say I don’t trust you.”

  Samantha stilled as if his words struck her unaware. It squeezed Mercury’s heart to think she didn’t feel certain of their trust after all they’d been through. He stroked a hand along her thigh to urge her to continue.

  She nodded, almost to herself then turned back to the captain. “I can’t tell you how much your generous offer means to me. What we need most right now is a way to get back to Roma without being seen.”

  Knock pounded a fist on the table, making it shake. “Why in hell would you want to go back there?”

  Samantha scowled. “Seems someone got left behind.” Mercury let satisfaction slip over him as her careful word choice scored a hit on the man. Knock’s mouth tightened. Real regret or anger that she wouldn’t let him off the hook?

  “Okay,” said the captain, drawing everyone’s attention back to her. “What’s your plan?”

  “I’ve heard a lot of the runners had a captain’s closet. If the Gwendella had something like that, I thought it might give us a chance of getting into the port undetected.”

  “All of you,” asked the captain.

  Samantha nodded. “Plus one more on the outbound journey. It should help that your last port of record will be Sedona instead of Haverlee. I doubt Owens or many of the Alliance port workers would even know Sedona and Haverlee are on the same planet.”

  “Allendson’s Port Chief there now.” She narrowed her eyes. “But you knew that.”

  Samantha licked her lips. “I don’t expect him to be a problem.”

  “No,” said the captain. “I don’t expect so.”

  The serving woman brought another pitcher of whatever the captain and her crew had been drinking and extra glas
ses. The room went quiet as she poured out glasses for Samantha, him and his brothers. The woman put a hand on his shoulder as she leaned across him to fill his tankard. He shifted his shoulder to discourage the woman. She moved on to Lo, but not before Samantha noticed the woman’s touch.

  When the serving woman left the room again the captain sipped her drink then spoke again. “I do have a closet and it should meet your needs. We’re not scheduled into Roma, but I can arrange something. Roma’s not so far off our route that it would raise suspicion for us to detour there.”

  “Perfect.” Samantha’s response to the news that her plan was coming together seemed subdued.

  He reached for her, but she avoided his touch in favor of adjusting her mug as if the precise angle of the handle required all her attention. Was it Hera on her mind or did she think him so fickle as to be distracted by the serving woman’s touch? He didn’t know how to reassure her, so he returned to the task at hand. “You didn’t mention this closet before,” he said as softly as his rough voice would allow.

  “I wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to count on it.” She wrapped her hands around her mug. “Some indies have a smuggler’s hold—a compartment built into the floor of the ship’s decking. It’s hidden and shielded so goods can be smuggled without being detected even by sensor sweep. The closet works on the same principle, but it’s built into the walls and it’s hooked into the environmental controls. For carrying people, not cargo.”

  Mercury said, “We could hide in this closet?”

  “Yes. Even if Owens sends in a search team, we’d be safe.”

  Satisfaction warmed his veins. “Good. That is very good.”

  “Now,” said Samantha. “We just have to come up with a plan to get to Hera and get her out.”

  “Leave that to me. We’ll handle that part of things.”

  “I might be able to help with that,” said Knock. “I’m pretty good with a security hack.”

  He didn’t like the idea of Knock becoming involved, but when he looked to Samantha she nodded. “He’s better than me…by far.”

  “Very well.” Even as everything was coming together better than he could have hoped, Mercury’s spirits flagged. They’d left Hera twenty-six days earlier. If Drake had told the truth, she might already be dead. If he’d lied then she might have been given to another pack for breeding. They might have to kill more of their kinsmen to re-claim her. And if neither case were true, there was still the impossible task of freeing her. Even if all went perfectly, he might lose Samantha. He knew she didn’t expect to stay with them after they were truly free. No, there was little to celebrate.

  When the planning was done and they headed back to Samantha’s childhood home, she held him back to speak with him in private.

  “There is something I want to talk to you about.”

  “What is it, courra?”

  “On the Gwendella, things will be different.”

  He held his silence, not sure of her meaning.

  “The Gwendella has a large crew and plenty of space. I’ll take a crew berth, they’ll expect it. I’ll make sure the captain arranges for a guest suite for you, Lo, and Carn. This will be better for everyone.”

  She wanted to keep him at a distance. He’d thought they’d been getting closer, but perhaps the thought of having a new identity changed things. “This will not be better for anyone.” He wanted to demand she acknowledge his claim to her, but he knew that would do no good. “But, it is your choice.” After they had done what they must he would convince her that she belonged with him, with his pack. They would find new ways. Ways that she could live with. Because he no longer wanted to live without her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  The Gwendella, Roma Orbit

  Earth Alliance Sector

  2210.184

  Ugly. Mercury studied the barren planet hanging bellow the Gwendella’s observation port. It was the first time he’d seen the entirety of the planet where he’d been created, birthed, and trained. It didn’t surprise him to learn the owners had been too impatient and too greedy to complete the terraforming process. The network of domes covering the only inhabited section of the planet reflected the starlight of space like scraps of metal tossed in the mud.

  On one side of him, Carn stared at the view unseeing, his mind on his mate, while Lo watched Samantha, the woman who’d become everything to him. Samantha stood centimeters away, but the gap seemed achingly wide.

  She spent time with him and his brothers every day. They ate meals together. She taught them a game called ping. And her eyes studied him as he exercised in the ship’s gym. It would have pleased him if her fascination had been with his body, but only fear filled her eyes. He didn’t understand why she feared him now, only after they’d reached her homeworld. But there was one thing he did understand—the more time she spent in the shoes of her old life the more out of his reach she became.

  Beside him, Samantha watched the shuttle that carried Knock up from the surface. The light colored craft seemed to grow steadily in size until its trajectory took it out of sight. She pivoted to face them. “The shuttle-bay is on the other side of the ship. As soon as Knock’s on board the captain will start the landing sequence. We’ll be on the surface and free to move around in a couple of hours.”

  Mercury and his brothers had already changed into the training pants and boots they would wear to blend in at the kennel. He acknowledged her words with a nod. He wanted to pull her close and taste the lips he dreamed about night after night, but he could feel her uneasiness like a prickly wall between them. He hated not knowing how to scale that wall and he wanted more than anything to tear it down. As long as she didn’t push him any further away he would be patient. He could wait until she was sure of him. He would wait as long as it took.

  Carn shifted from one foot to the other behind him. “When will we know if Owens will send a team on board to search?”

  Samantha’s eyes lifted and she focused over Mercury’s shoulder. “According to the captain, back during her runner days she smuggled people safely through hundreds of searches. Not one search team ever discovered the captain’s closet.”

  Mercury took Samantha’s hand. “Let’s go then.”

  There was no one around when they reached the Ward Room, where the entrance to the closet had remained hidden for decades. A large table took up the bulk of the space, but left enough room to move around. The side walls were covered in rows of square display screens. Across the room from the main entrance another door led to the captain’s quarters.

  While Lo and Carn pushed aside furniture and opened the complicated mechanism on the door to their hiding space, Samantha pulled him aside. She helped him shrug the holyrobes on over his training gear. They’d rely on the disguise to get through the port and through the public square. She stepped close and pulled him down to press her forehead to his. He rumbled in satisfaction.

  “We won’t have time to talk much after we land and there’s something I want to tell you.”

  He said nothing, giving her time to arrange her thoughts. “You once said it was my courage that made me a worthy mate.”

  His heart stuttered. This might be the moment when she would finally accept his mate-claim or she might once again deny him. Whatever she needed to say, he would hear her out.

  “I know,” she said. “You think you failed your brothers in the arena when you led Lo to attack the patrons.”

  Stunned by her choice of topic, Mercury straightened. Her hands trailed down his chest, but she wouldn’t be discouraged. Not his brave little mate.

  “If you hadn’t done that, we’d never have met. And if I hadn’t taken a chance to help you escape we wouldn’t be here, together, today. When I was headed down to the planet in the pod with Drake and Resler I can tell you I was worried that my impulsive decisions had gotten me into a bad spot.”

  “You act from your heart, courra. It’s one of the things I like most about you.”

  She smiled, that my
sterious now-I’ve-got-you smile she sometimes used when they were sharing pleasure. Damn how he’d missed pleasuring her.

  “And I want you to think about something,” she said. “What you did that day in the arena, it may have seemed like a mistake at the time, but you went with your heart and your instincts that day. You lost two brothers, but not because of anything you did. If you hadn’t done it, Carn might be dead too.”

  And he would never have found her and had a chance at freedom. “In battle it’s cool reason that most often wins the match.” He knew this to be true, but her words also had merit.

  “Carn and Lo depend on—”

  She pressed her fingers to his lips. “Carn and Lo don’t follow you because you’re smart or clever or great at strategy. They follow you because they know you would do anything in your power for them.”

  She smiled again, but this time the smile was sad and the sparkle in her eyes dimmed. He could think of nothing to say.

  The door to the external corridor flew open and Knock stormed into the room. “Sorry it took me so long to get here.” The man panted as if he’d run the whole way from the shuttle-bay. “I’ve got the security grid map and the lock overrides as promised. But I’ve also got something you’re really gonna like.” He looked from face to face. “Hey, did I interrupt something?”

  “No,” said Samantha. “Show us what you have.”

  He held out his hand and three tiny-metal cylinders sat in his palm. Each secured to a slender chain. “Personal scatter-shields. They’ll make it harder for them to see you during scans, vid or sensor.”

  He passed them around then stopped in front of Samantha. “We should be getting inside now. Give me a hand.”

  Samantha allowed Knock to help her into the closet and he and his brothers followed her inside. Once they were all inside the narrow space, the door snicked shut, leaving them in total darkness.