Dominion Rising: 23 Brand New Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels

by White, Gwynn

  Renee had launched into a tirade, and for the first time in over two hundred years, he’d severed their link. While she was momentarily speechless, his drone had stormed off to the bridge.

  If the crew found it strange that his drone was there without his link, none of them were foolish enough to bring it up. They could obviously tell he was in a bad mood.

  Ven’s drone folded his arms across his chest and scowled at the energy webs, ignoring everyone on the bridge as he attempted to will the mission to be over. He was doing a fine job, too, until something triggered a warning alarm on deck thirty-seven. His consciousness homed in on the alarm, even though he already knew what it was. There was only one thing stored on deck thirty-seven.

  A life-pod had just been launched, and like all life-pods, it was designed so an AI couldn’t override its controls.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Vengeance muttered. He rubbed his forehead, wondering if, for the first time in his long life, he were truly developing a headache.

  “Captain Welner,” he sighed. “I must inform you that I’ve lost another crewmember. Primary Link Renee has just used one of the life-pods to enter the planet’s atmosphere. I assume she’s attempting to reach the rogue telepath before my sentinels do.”

  Before the captain or crew could respond, he spun around and marched from the bridge, prepping another transport for launch.

  15

  Footsteps echoed against stone outside the cave where she and Harper were hiding. They sounded light against the pebbles and dirt, and the two women backed farther away from the opening, hoping they’d be able to lose their pursuer in the darkness. It was foolish. They were stranded on a barren planet with nowhere to go, but neither woman was ready to die.

  Liv froze when their pursuer reached out to her… in her mind.

  “Hayley, please stop. I just want to talk to you. I slipped away from Ven to reason with you, but we won’t have much time. He’ll be here in minutes.”

  “Renee,” Liv whispered.

  Harper shook her head quickly, indicating they shouldn’t trust a woman who’d served as a link to a warship for over two centuries. But Liv couldn’t force her legs to obey her friend’s command. She glanced over her shoulder toward the mouth of the cave where Renee stood, peering in at them.

  The older telepath had called her Hayley. It had been so long since she’d actually heard her real name, it seemed surreal, as if Renee were talking to someone else. And hearing her name, her real name, had immobilized her, paralyzed her with uncertainty and fear and sorrow.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” Renee asked.

  Harper pulled on Liv’s arm, but she still refused to budge. It would be pointless, anyway. They couldn’t escape her.

  “Right about what?” Liv asked weakly.

  “Who you are,” Renee answered. “Or at least, who you used to be.”

  “Liv,” Harper hissed. “I will leave your stubborn ass here if you don’t move it. Now!”

  “Amelia,” Renee sighed. “I don’t know what—”

  “That is not my name, old woman,” Harper snapped.

  Renee held up her hands, showing the younger woman she had no intention of fighting her. “You broke his heart, you know,” Renee told Liv.

  Liv flinched and shook her head slowly. “I helped an old friend escape execution. And he was going to deliver her to her death.”

  “She broke our laws, Liv. That was her choice to make,” Renee countered.

  “Choice?” Liv scoffed. “You don’t know a damn thing about our choices.”

  “You’re right. But I would like to know what happened to all of you. And you did return, Hayley. Out of all the Warships in the Spire, you came back to Vengeance. Why?”

  Liv gritted her teeth and inhaled a slow, deep breath. Renee stepped into the cave, closer to both women, and Harper tugged on Liv’s arm again. “I don’t know,” Liv finally admitted. “I guess I wanted to make sure he was okay.”

  Renee tilted her head and crossed her arms. “And is he?”

  “You ask a lot of questions,” Harper interrupted. “Are you here to interrogate us or turn us in?”

  “I’m here to find out how the most joyful and powerful little girl I’ve ever met became so scared that she erased her own identity and created an illusion of a different life. And to find out why she wants that life to remain hidden from the AI she still loves.”

  “Because…” Liv’s whisper fell from her lips, and she closed her eyes as the intrusive, painful memories of Basilisk invading her mind, attempting to force a link between them, resurfaced. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks, but the helmet of her suit prevented her from being able to wipe them away.

  “Olivia,” Renee sighed. “Show me. Let me see what you went through. I may be able to help begin your healing.”

  Liv squeezed her eyes closed even harder, not wanting to share her mind with another living soul. But if this was the only way Renee would understand the hell she and the other girls had survived, and maybe even give her and Harper the chance to keep running, she’d do it. Her mind opened, and her telepathic gift, or curse—she no longer knew which it was—reached back toward Renee. As those images and emotions stampeded through her mind with an intense ferocity, they rushed across the link to Renee, who gasped and moaned, “No.”

  Liv opened her eyes and caught the older woman clutching her stomach with one arm, the other hand pressed against the faceplate of her helmet.

  “I don’t want an AI in my mind ever again,” Liv said quietly. “Not even Ven.”

  “Oh, Hayley,” Renee sobbed. “All of you… you were just children. I will do everything in my power to protect you, even from Ven. You have my word.”

  “Thank you. But I am willing to surrender myself if you tell Ven you couldn’t find Harper,” Liv offered.

  Both women protested at the same time, Renee insisting she couldn’t lie to him and Harper insisting she wouldn’t allow her to sacrifice herself like that.

  “You wouldn’t necessarily be lying if you let Harper go now. Once she’s out of our sight, she’ll have escaped.”

  Renee let her hand fall from her faceplate and gestured to the cave wall beside her. “She’ll die here!”

  “And she’ll die if you drag her back onboard!” Liv yelled.

  Renee gasped again and spun around, facing a phantom outside the cave before Liv could even hear him approach.

  “Damn, that was fast,” Renee said as she glanced over her shoulder. A noise outside the cave drew their attention back outside.

  “Ven,” she called, “give me a few moments. I need to handle this.”

  “You’re attempting to reason with potentially dangerous criminals,” Ven argued, but Renee cut him off.

  “Are you serious? Liv is a dangerous criminal?”

  The tall, dark metal form of one of his sentinels appeared at the mouth of the cave, and Liv could have sworn it was somehow glaring at her.

  “She is now,” he said, his voice matching the cold, inhuman appearance of the sentinel. “She stole Spire property, aided in the escape of a prisoner of the Spire, and resisted arrest.”

  Renee waved him off and insisted, “None of that makes her dangerous.”

  “She neutralized five of my sentinels. Five! However, I have a full complement of sentinels waiting outside,” Ven warned Liv and Harper. “And the authority to shoot to kill if you run.”

  Liv crossed her arms irritably and shot back, “You’re threatening to kill me? Now who’s the dangerous one?”

  “Only if you attempt to evade capture,” Ven retorted. “So I suggest you both surrender now.”

  “Right,” Liv scoffed. “Because being killed by the Spire is a much better alternative.

  Harper shrugged and offered, “The Spire is at least quick and efficient about it. No telling what this asshole will do if he gets his hands on us.”

  “He has weapons,” Liv pointed out. “He doesn’t need to get his hands on us.”

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nbsp; “Ven,” Renee tried, “perhaps if you promise not to hurt them, they’ll cooperate.”

  “Um…” Harper stammered. “Any chance you’ll believe I’m trying to kidnap her again?”

  Renee laughed, and the red lights on the sentinel’s face twinkled as if he were both surprised and angered by Harper’s levity in their hopeless situation.

  “Put your weapon down,” he ordered as his cannons powered up and he directed them at Harper, who grunted at him but placed the plasma rifle she’d been carrying on the ground.

  “Renee,” he continued. “Return to the life-pod and the ship.”

  “No,” Renee interrupted. “I’m staying with these girls until they’re both safely aboard.”

  “Renee—” he barked, but Renee interrupted him again.

  “Even the pirate isn’t as dangerous as you think. They won’t hurt me. And I would like to—”

  “Forget it,” Ven grumbled.

  His sentinels stormed into the cave, and one grabbed Harper and lifted her from the ground. For a brief moment, Liv was seven years old again, a small, defenseless child who’d watched helplessly as similar monsters stole her and her friends from the safety and peace of their home.

  “Put her down!” Liv screamed, and as a second sentinel picked her up to haul her away, she lashed out at them with her mind, briefly disabling the sentinels before she felt the skillful precision of someone lashing back, shutting off her control of the sentinels and forcing the world around her to darken as she slipped into a dreamless sleep.

  * * *

  Liv awoke in a room aboard Vengeance, but she wasn’t in the brig yet. Surely, her imprisonment was coming. Not surprisingly, Harper wasn’t with her. She sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes as she tried to figure out how she’d wound up here and how Renee had forced her to pass out. She eventually gave up and just waited for one of the sentinels to come for her, but when the door finally opened, Ven’s drone, his handsome, humanlike drone, stood in the hallway instead. Liv swallowed and sank in her chair, feeling so much smaller than she was.

  Ven looked her over quickly and curtly asked, “Are you hurt?”

  She shook her head slowly. “No,” she breathed.

  “Then follow me. I’ve notified the Spire that you and the pirate are in my custody again.”

  Liv rose from the chair, but her legs seemed weak and shaky. She could handle whatever punishment the Spire dealt out—she’d been through worse—but Ven’s obvious pain and disappointment threatened to destroy what few defenses she had left.

  She obeyed, though, and followed him into the hallway as he began the long walk back to the prison cells. Liv watched his back for a few minutes, fumbling with words in her mind before allowing any to spill out. When they did, they formed a simple apology. “I’m so sorry, Ven.”

  He slowed briefly then resumed his brisk pace. “It’s easy to be sorry after you’ve been captured.”

  “No,” Liv argued. “It’s easy to be sorry when you’re actually sorry.”

  Ven suddenly stopped and turned on her, but she’d been following too closely and walked into him. He grabbed her arms to steady her then pushed her back as if he could force the emotional distance between them as well. “You betrayed me,” he hissed.

  Liv’s eyes stung with tears, but she wouldn’t look away. “I know. But piracy in the Spire is punishable by death, and I couldn’t let you deliver her to the Spire Command. She was my best friend growing up, Ven.”

  Ven threw his hands up and exclaimed, “You never talked to me. You never asked me to make a different decision.”

  “Because you wouldn’t have!” Liv exclaimed back. “You always do exactly what you’re supposed to.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her and asked, “Liv, given your circumstances, it’s time to tell me the truth. How do you know what I always do?”

  He was clearly fishing for something about her past. Liv shuffled her feet nervously. “I studied your history. I work here… or I did.”

  “And you really think the Spire would make public any decisions I’ve made that they disagreed with?” he retorted.

  “We’re not talking about a disagreement, Ven. If you’d refused to bring Harper to Spire Command, you would have been breaking the law. Even if I believed you’d be willing to do that, I wouldn’t ask you to.”

  Ven blinked at her, those beautiful dark brown eyes studying her, then he sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. Liv had an overwhelming urge to run her own fingers through his hair and tame the unruly mess he’d just made, but she bit her lip and stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets. She had to get a grip on her emotions. Or hormones. Or maybe both.

  “You didn’t want me in that position,” he finally said.

  Liv shook her head, and for once, she could be completely honest with him. She’d never ask him to break the law for her.

  Ven sighed and stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets, too. “What happened in the cave?”

  Liv shuffled her feet nervously again and lifted a shoulder, but she knew exactly why she’d reacted that way. “I panicked.”

  “Olivia,” he said, “I’m trying to help you here. How can I do that if you aren’t honest with me?”

  “She’s my friend, and I panicked. That’s the truth. I did all this for her, and she’s still going to die!”

  “It’s unlikely they’ll give her a death sentence. Harper’s a telepath, and she’s too valuable. They’ll hope she can eventually be useful in some way. She’ll never be able to serve as a link, of course, but at the very least, the Triumvirate will want to know how and why a telepath became a pirate without the Spire’s knowledge. I can do nothing more for her, but I will make you a deal. I’ll overlook this… lapse in judgment one time and allow you to return to your post. When I reported this to Spire command, I left out your involvement. So as far as they know, you were an innocent victim. Harper will have to face a Triumvirate though.”

  “Ven,” Liv argued, “there’s—”

  “It’s better than imprisonment or death,” Ven interrupted. “And I’ll report her in the most favorable light possible, given the circumstances.”

  “Okay,” Liv whispered before she could think through her own options.

  “And you’ll remain my engineer?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good,” he said with a hint of a smile for the first time. “Because Renee still thinks I’m in need of a friend, and you’ve just proven how loyal you are to your friends.”

  He clearly couldn’t remember her, so why was he willing to make so many concessions for her? What did he want from her? It couldn’t be that he’d found out she was his link. If he’d discovered the truth, he’d be pushing for her to replace Renee, not telling her she could return to engineering.

  And what the hell was she supposed to do about Harper now? She knew her old friend would rather face death than a life as a telepath for the Spire. It seemed all she’d done was create the worst possible outcome for them both. Harper would be forced into servitude, and she’d be forced to remain aboard Vengeance, even if he uncovered her own secret.

  But there were no more escapes, no more desperate plans to save them both.

  They were at Vengeance’s mercy.

  16

  Not chess again,” Liv groaned.

  Since they were still quite a long way from Teutorigos, the home planet of the Spire, they didn’t measure time in days but cycles based on sleep and work. If she were on a planet where days could be measured, though, she was pretty sure she’d be going on eight days now of nightly chess matches with Ven.

  Strange as it was, he’d proven true to his word. This last week, he’d done his best to cultivate a friendship with her. It should have been awkward, but after the first day, they’d fallen into a comfortable routine. Or maybe a boring routine was more accurate, since it involved a lot of chess.

  He pointed to the board and shot her a crooked grin. “You have yet to beat me. You can quit once you do.”<
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  “That’s impossible,” Liv insisted. “You have the processing skills of a computer.”

  Ven just shrugged. “I’m a sentient being, which means I’m perfectly capable of making mistakes.”

  “So I have to keep playing chess until you make a mistake?” She sat down anyway and glared at the board with the animosity it deserved.

  She really hated this game.

  “Or until I think your strategy has improved enough that you’d be able to defeat a human opponent,” he suggested, his grin turning mischievous.

  “I’d rather have a tea party again,” Liv mumbled, shoving one of her pawns forward to open the match.

  Ven looked up at her, confused, and asked, “With whom did you have a tea party? And why? Sounds far more boring than chess.”

  Liv dug her short nails into her palms so she could concentrate on something other than yet another blunder. She shrugged and nodded toward his side of the board. “Your move. And little girls have tea parties all the time. We drink tea and have cookies. What’s not to like about that?”

  “Don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve never been to a tea party before. But I’d be willing, and this body is capable of doing anything a human male’s can.”

  Yes, she thought, I’m sure it is.

  Liv blushed and moved another pawn.

  “You’re blushing again, Olivia,” he observed.

  “Chess makes me blush.”

  “You’re being a smartass again, Olivia.”

  She laughed and reminded him, “I’m good at two things, and one of them is not chess.”

  “True,” he acknowledged. “Although I’m sure you excel at more than sarcasm and your job.”

  “Well,” she teased, “I didn’t want to brag, but I do throw a mean tea party.”

  Ven laughed, too, and sat back in his chair, eyeing her playfully. “Okay. You win. Not this game, I already had you beat, but I’ll let you throw this tea party instead.”