Protectiveness.
Reflexively, his sentinel inched closer to her, Olivia Hawthorne’s defense preoccupying his mind. Liv eyed it warily.
“Ven,” Renee said quietly, “I think it’s time to let Journey Engineer Hawthorne return to her sleeping quarters. It’s cold out, and she needs rest before starting her day.”
“But the drill isn’t over yet,” Ven insisted stubbornly.
“She’s freezing her ass off out here,” Renee snapped.
“Well, I didn’t choose the time,” he mumbled. “Captain Welner did.”
“Ugh,” Renee groaned then turned her attention to Liv. “He’s hopeless, isn’t he?”
“I… really wouldn’t know.” Liv kept her eyes focused on the ground.
“Many other crew members are in a similar state of undress,” Ven pointed out. “The drill was timed to occur during main sleep cycle to evaluate how well the crew adapts to sudden stressful situations.”
“Yes, I know,” Renee said. “But that doesn’t mean we should let the poor girl freeze to death. Come here, Olivia. If Vengeance is going to be a stickler for regulations, the least he can do is help you stay warm.”
Liv shook her head quickly in Renee’s direction, and Vengeance gaped at his link. What had gotten into her lately? Maybe she was going senile. He quickly scanned her, but all bios registered fine, as did her neural links.
“Ven, stop looking at me like I’ve sprouted two heads. I meant for you to give Liv your tunic. It’s big enough to fit her like a coat. What did you think I meant?”
He wasn’t about to admit what he’d been thinking.
“Of course.” He triggered the nanites on the tunic, opening the side seam, and shrugged off the outer garment. When he held it out to Liv, she shook her head again.
“I’m fine. Really.” She kept her eyes on the ground as if the grass had turned a fascinating color.
He continued to hold out the tunic.
She continued to study the ground.
Another thirty seconds passed so Vengeance gave the tunic a wiggle.
No response. Not even a blink.
Renee chuckled and touched his arm gently. “I’m assuming I’m not confined to this garden until the drill is over, so I’m going back to bed. Don’t antagonize the poor woman too much.” As Renee walked back toward her sleeping quarters, Vengeance directed his sentinel to follow her but held his drone’s position.
Another thirty seconds. Another wiggle of the tunic.
“Oh, fine.” Liv snatched the nanogarment from his hand and hefted it over her shoulders then hugged it close to her body. “But if any of my fellow engineers see me, you’d better start explaining fast or rumors are going to fly.”
“Understood. I will speak fast.” Amusement swirled through his core personality.
“Very fast. Are we clear?”
“Yes. Very.” Ven pressed his lips together, but he couldn’t help it. A deep laugh erupted as he thought of this brash young engineer who’d just given an order to a three thousand-year-old Spire AI.
Liv sucked in a quick breath as the color drained from her cheeks, leaving her so pale he feared she might pass out. Ven scanned her vitals, but aside from an elevated pulse rate and a new rush of adrenalin, they were already normalizing.
Liv closed her eyes and groaned. “You should just go ahead and toss my ass in the brig now, before I do more damage to my career. Seriously. You’d be doing me a favor. The report can read ‘Too stupid to function. Imprisoned for her own safety.’”
Another rumble of laughter escaped him. Ven couldn’t remember the last time talking to someone besides Renee had been so enjoyable. Of course, that wasn’t entirely true. He remembered exactly how long it had been. But still, he never knew what this young woman would say next, and that unpredictability delighted him.
“I think,” Ven teased, “I’ll skip throwing one of the most promising minds aboard my ship into the brig. It would be a complete waste of impressive talent.”
Liv tugged at the tunic and shuffled her feet nervously. “Sorry,” she muttered. “People like to talk… and the more scandalous the rumor, the better.”
Ven lifted a shoulder and assured her, “Understood. I’ll set the record straight should any rumors begin.”
“You know, it’s not really my friendship Renee wants,” Liv said quietly. “I mean, it is, but not with her. She wants me to befriend you.”
“Me?” Ven repeated.
Liv glanced up at him and nodded. “Yeah. Apparently, she thinks you’ll need someone to help you when she…”
Ven grunted, annoyed that Renee had lied to him, even if it had been out of concern for him.
“Since when do you lie to me?” he asked her through their link.
“Since you became a pain in the ass about acknowledging that you need other people in your life.”
Ven pretended to think about that before responding, “So always then?”
He could sense Renee’s amusement and found himself smiling. For a moment, it was like old times, before she’d decided to leave him. Regret followed on the wave of his joy.
“Thank you, Renee. But we both know we can’t force her to do something like this. Friendships have to happen organically. They can’t be mandated.”
“I’m not mandating anything. I simply asked her to give it a chance, but she’s quite reluctant. I think you’ll find that you both need one another.”
“Wha…?” but Renee cut him off.
“Is she still there? Are you seriously having this long conversation with me while she’s just standing around waiting for a conversation she can actually hear?”
Ven sighed aloud and rubbed his eyes again. “This is hopeless. I’m not friend material.”
“Shut up and pay attention to her,” Renee instructed.
“But it’s not too late. I could reverse your aging. You could remain my link for many more years. Centuries, even. Please, Renee. I’m not ready to lose another link.”
A touch of sadness and another wave of regret passed along their link. He merged his consciousness more fully with hers so there would be no doubt about his love for her.
“I’m sorry I failed you, Ven, and that I couldn’t be what you needed.”
“That’s not important to me. I love you regardless.”
“I couldn’t live as an AI. I never wanted to be immortal. My heart and mind need rest, and I want to learn what comes next. You know I’ve always believed he’s waiting for me somewhere.”
“I could learn with you.” Even as he suggested self-termination, fear wormed into his core.
“You love life too much. It’s not your time, Ven.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m not. Besides, we still have years together after I’m no longer your telepath. You can come visit me whenever you want.”
“Um… can I go back to my sleeping quarters now?” Liv asked.
Ven jumped as the unexpected voice interrupted his mental conversation with Renee, who sensed it, of course, and laughed. “Serves you right for ignoring your young engineer for so long.”
Liv had been nervously pacing in front of his drone, and her proximity caused another sensation he hadn’t felt in an extremely long time. As that tingling excitement passed along his neural pathways, filling him with an electric warmth, he became painfully—and humiliatingly—aware that her presence aroused him.
For the second time, he sensed Renee laughing. “I take it back. Forget the friendship. Let her go back to bed and go with her. This is a friendship that needs benefits.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Ven muttered aloud.
Liv stopped pacing and arched an eyebrow at him. “Are you okay?”
“Uh… yeah. Just… Renee. Being Renee.”
“Ah,” Liv responded as if she could possibly understand what he’d meant by that.
“She was reprimanding me for ignoring you,” he explained, wisely leaving out the whole suggestion about
sleeping with her. “Normally, I’m capable of holding hundreds of conversations at the same time. Perhaps it’s time to return to the home world and undergo the upgrades Spire Command has been badgering me about.”
“Upgrades? That’ll be a mess,” Liv said, making a face as if she were already dreading the process.
“Tell me about it,” Ven agreed. “Last time I underwent a major overhaul, I spoke almost an octave higher, my new quantum frame was so large I swear I lost parts of myself, and my new drives were ‘touchy.’ First time I eased into motion under low power, I knocked all my crew off their feet. They complained for days.”
The tension in Liv’s shoulders relaxed, and her body language softened, almost friendly now as she slanted her body toward his with her head tilted back. “Oh, well, that sounds fun. Can’t wait.”
“Why do you think I’ve been putting it off for so long?”
“So you have a lackey like me to deal with the aftermath?” she joked.
“Technically, I have hundreds of lackeys like you to deal with the aftermath.”
“Wrong thing to say, Ven,” Renee chided.
“I mean...” Ven stammered, “most aren’t as adept as you. I simply meant—”
Liv’s sudden laughter cut him off, and even though he’d found himself embarrassed, once again, by his social blunder, he smiled at her. Her laughter apparently had that effect on him.
Renee’s voice interrupted his reverie. “Vengeance, can you wrap up your flirting? I think Captain Welner is trying to contact you. He’s pinged my communication frequency three times in the last forty-five seconds.”
Vengeance scowled and told her, “I know. I’m ignoring him.”
Liv sighed, and he caught her shooting him an exasperated look so he offered her a sheepish grin. “Captain Welner is trying to get my attention. I’m trying to ignore him.”
“Are you in the habit of ignoring the captain?” Liv asked.
Vengeance shrugged. “The drill was his idea, and he’s the one who wanted me to make it more difficult, to act like I’m experiencing a severe disconnect. I’m just being non-responsive as he asked.”
Liv narrowed her eyes at him and murmured, “I can’t believe it… the rule-following, policy-quoting, rigid warship persona is just a disguise. You’re a total rebel.”
Ven offered her a doe-eyed, innocent look and, completely deadpan, asked her, “What do you mean? I’m simply complying with his own request.”
Liv rolled her eyes. “Okay, Ven. If that’s the story you tell me, I can’t lie if he asks me about it, right?”
Ven slowly smiled at her and lifted a shoulder. “Well, I’d certainly never ask you to lie for me.”
Liv laughed and shook her head, and while Vengeance would have been perfectly happy to spend the rest of his night in the garden chatting with his newest engineer, a new order arrived along his deep space neural link to the rest of the Spire hive-mind.
An authoritarian female mind touched him briefly. One of the Spire queens—not his own mother since he was presently outside her jurisdiction—shared the data blast. “Station Excelon-7 has just reported a raid. One of its supply run ships has been hit by space pirates. You are the nearest ship in range. Please render assistance to the station then locate and recover the stolen supplies. If the raiders do not surrender to Spire Command, you have permission to use deadly force.”
“VEN-0115-343 acknowledges new command,” he replied to the hive-mind then said aloud to his crew, “Drill termination sequence initiated. New orders received. All Senior Officers, please report to the captain’s briefing room.”
Liv pulled at the tunic to take it off while asking, “Is everything all right?”
“Keep it,” Ven told her. “But get back to your quarters, dress, and report to engineering as quickly as you can. We have pirates to catch.”
Chapter Nine
After being dismissed, Liv made her way back to her quarters in record time. Once inside, she shed the nanogarment Vengeance’s drone had loaned her and pulled on her own uniform and work harness.
Two minutes later, she was back out in the hall, hurrying down to engineering. She wasn’t the only one. Other crewmembers were rushing to their assigned departments.
She was almost at main engineering when six of Vengeance’s massive sentinels emerged from a side corridor and stalked down the hall ahead of her. At their sudden appearance, she clamped down harder on her telepathic gift.
Routine procedure dictated that a company of sentinels report to main engineering in the likelihood of a conflict. Still, when the sentinel farthest back in line slowed and turned his triangular head in her direction, her stomach flipped nervously.
Keep going, she silently willed him. Don’t single me out.
But Vengeance had other ideas and slowed his sentinel to match her speed. “Ah, Journeyman Engineer Hawthorne, your efficiency is as impressive as always,” he said in his familiar, deep, and far too sexy voice. “You’re going to make it to engineering before some of my senior staff make it to the briefing room.”
Great. She’d impressed him and drawn his attention back to her.
“Thank you. I endeavor to always do my best.” Now go away and look menacing somewhere else.
Vengeance didn’t comply with her mental request, though, as he continued to keep pace with her. When the silence stretched on and became awkward, Liv scoured her brain for something to say. “How long until we transit?”
The deck already trembled under her feet with the familiar vibrations of the transit engines coming online.
“I’m briefing my senior staff in five minutes. We’ll be transiting in three.”
Liv nodded as they passed under the wide archway that marked the outer edge of her territory. Main engineering spread out before them. Maintenance drudges waited in their bays while human personnel stood at their assigned terminals and went about their duties. In the center of the vast complex, Adept and Master-level engineers looked up at complex energy webs that displayed various readings. Beside them, a holographic version of Vengeance’s human-form drone was briefing his engineers.
Her gaze skated away from the hologram as she veered to the left, parting company with the sentinels and following the running lights that marked the different pathways deeper into engineering. Once she was firmly grounded in her work and safely installed in the bowels of Vengeance’s engines, she could forget the unsettling conversation from earlier in the garden.
She was just feet away from escape when her eyes drifted back toward the central energy webs. They were displaying the schematics of a small ship, a Sloughad Class scout ship. Normal pirates wouldn’t have been able to get their hands on that type of vessel. But then again, she and her rogue sisters weren’t a regular pirate crew.
Years before, she and her sisters had killed the rogue AI who had controlled the Agrona, a Sloughad Class scout ship, and used her corpse to escape. Their enhanced telepathy had allowed them to interact with the ship’s controls the same way the AI had.
After their escape, they’d commandeered other ships to serve their needs. Several of the young women, Liv included, had wanted to see the Sloughad destroyed in a sun, but the Triumvirate they’d formed to make important decisions insisted they couldn’t destroy such a valuable tool. Besides, killing another Spire AI to get their hands on a different ship would draw the Spire’s attention.
As far as the Spire knew, all the young Nuallan telepaths had died back on the planet. The Triumvirate wanted it to remain that way. Liv did, too. Plus, she wasn’t sure she could stomach killing an innocent AI simply to steal his or her body.
But rogues? That was another matter altogether. If it were within her power to round up every last rogue and melt them in the nearest sun, she’d do it without hesitation.
However, knowing what she did, she had a really bad feeling about this Sloughad. She needed to get closer to the view screen to see the ship’s birth stamp.
“Is there a problem, Liv?”
She jerked in surprise. Oh, gods. That deep, sexy voice again.
She turned to the holographic version of Vengeance standing an arm’s length away. “Um… I… that ship on the view screen. Is that the pirate ship?” It wasn’t every day that pirates got their hands on a Spire ship—even a corpse. If she didn’t want to blow her cover, she needed to seem more shocked. “How is that even possible?”
“We don’t know yet. However, the station hit by the pirates reports that the ship’s AI was long dead. A corpse ship. I don’t know how pirates acquired it, but I plan to hunt them down and find out.”
And if he succeeded, he’d learn a great many other secrets, too.
She couldn’t let that happen. Vengeance’s deck shuddered under her boots and the massive ship jumped into transit. With another glance at the large energy web showing the frozen image of the scout ship, she only had as long as it took Vengeance to reach his intended destination to come up with a plan to foul his hunt.
“How long until we reach the station?” she asked, desperately hoping she didn’t rouse his suspicions.
“ETA twenty minutes.”
“Vengeance, if you find the ship, would I be allowed to see it up close on one of the view screens?”
“When I catch the ship, not if.” Vengeance’s hologram scowled at the ship on the view screen, but his expression warmed when he looked at her again. “I sense this request is brought on by more than simple curiosity. And since I hate mysteries, I might be persuaded to comply with your request, given the proper incentive.”
The hologram Vengeance walked a half-circle in front of her, tilting his head in a humanlike manner as he read her bio-signs and body language.
Damn and double damn. She’d further sparked the AI’s interest, and now he was studying her for signs she was lying. Her entire life was one big lie, and she hadn’t done anything to give herself away yet. Hell, she’d been lying for so long that if she ever told him the truth, that would probably register as a lie.
Oh, well. No risk, no reward. “I’m sure you reviewed my records when I was first assigned to you.”
Vengeance (Warships of the Spire Book 1) Page 6