That way, she couldn’t see how much his hands were shaking, how much effort it took him to turn his back on her. Every instinct told him to duck behind the nav board and hide. Nothing he knew of her suggested that she was not completely serious in her threat. She probably had authorization to do it. In an effort to distract himself, he focused on the small ship flying in front of them.
He wondered how close he could get before TiCara noticed that they were there, and realized that with all her maneuvering and hiding, he could still find her. He hoped that she knew that it was him and that his face haunted her dreams. Her terror and loathing had always been sweet.
He would miss that feeling when she was gone. But it would be easier to destroy the ship and her with it than to try and capture her alive. He repeated the thought to himself, allowing it to become more convincing. The fewer people who survived this expedition, the better for him. Every death would make those coordinates more valuable.
All he had to do was wait to be sure that he had the right ones. As if it could read his thoughts, the comm speaker set off the sharp chime that announced incoming communications. Yva shoved him aside and waved the other crewmember from the Bridge. Then she hit the button to play the audio. A series of beeps filled the room and she turned it down, letting the codes feed into the computer.
As the computer recognized the signal as nav coordinates, it fed them into a processor. When the final beep announced the end of processing, Zig hit the controls and a three-dimensional schematic hovered above the nav screen, planets in a brilliant dark blue, asteroids in a light yellow and the star, Gathwaite Six, in a deep red. One asteroid drifted at the edge of a much smaller belt than the one they had just exited.
It was colored a medium purple and Zig found himself smiling at it, as if it was an old friend. A close old friend, in this case. They could reach it in a few cycles based on the distance in the schematic. He could hear Yva let out her breath in a quiet hiss, as if she’d been holding it in anticipation of this moment.
But there remained a chance that TiCara had somehow found out, had managed to coerce her Second into revealing his compromised loyalties. He checked the source code against his records. It had come from Erol’s comm. And it had better be tru, at least if he wanted to see his primary again.
Of course, that wasn’t going to happen anyway. But Erol didn’t know that yet. He spared a moment’s consideration for Elia’s little protégé, the corporate rep. No word from her, which suggested that her desire to have her medusas restored was less urgent than Elia thought, or, possibly, that she’d been exposed and was not in a position to send a message. Not that it mattered because she wasn’t going to get rewired either. For a wild moment, he savored that sense of power, of control over so many destinies at once, like a new narcotic.
What are you smirking about? Yva’s voice made her use of the archaic word grate even more than it might have from someone else. If the tell is tru, all we need to do is to confirm the coordinates and send them back to headquarters. We don’t have any other corp work in this system, or with that ship. ‘Stand me, Zig? Don’t know what you’re hoping for, but it doesn’t happen on our corp’s cred. She was watching him, her weapon still in her hand.
Meeting her gaze, Zig had a visceral reaction, a feverish brew of hatred and fear and something like desire, that nearly boiled from his pores. It made it hard to think, harder to react. But not impossible. He lurched out of his frozen tableau and lunged for her and they grappled for the blaster. She tried to sweep his feet out from under him, only to have him step back and use his longer arms to hold her off.
They struggled for what seemed like a full planetary cycle, but Zig gradually got the upper hand. She clawed at his face as he released her hand to close his around her throat. They flailed and struggled for a few more minutes as he tried cut off her air, then he threw her backward as she drew blood, sinking her teeth into his arm. The crunch of her head striking the edge of the comm console was deeply satisfying. Yva dropped to the floor, limp and unmoving. He could see her breathing so she was still alive but he would ensure that wouldn’t last long.
He grabbed for the fallen blaster to fry her, then paused to think. She might still have her uses. If Yva lived, she could still be given to their corporate masters as the fool who had tried to betray them. If he damaged her enough, she wouldn’t be able to tell them otherwise. He grinned as he bound her arms and legs and gagged her with the safety harness he cut from the co-pilot’s chair.
Then he turned his attention back to the Astra. It was speeding up, increasing the distance between them. Zig sped up as well, checking the schematic as he did so. From the information that Erol had sent him, they should be at Electra in a few cycles. He sent a message to the small crew operating the weapons array to power it up again.
He kept watching the little ship until he could almost see its pilot’s face superimposed on it. His imagination let him hear her pleas for mercy, hear her offer him anything he wanted including her body. It aroused him until his erection ached against his blacksuit and he gave the schematic a distracted look, wishing he had time for the VR mods for a quick release.
The shots from the Astra’s pulsar cannon took him completely by surprise. He rolled his ship over to avoid the fire. He didn’t hear the telltale thud of a strike or the clamor of an alarm, so he thought they were still unscathed when he righted the ship. But he didn’t stop to savor the sense of relief. Instead, he signaled the weapons bay to fire once, then again.
His ship rocked from return fire and suddenly the space around both ships was alive with lights. Something was materializing just underneath them. And that something had weapons of its own. Now, he heard the sickening thud of a hit and the shriek of the alarms. His ship began to follow the Astra down to whatever it was, into a giant cloud that gradually redefined itself as a small moon. Electra 12. He’d found it.
Now he just had to survive it.
Chapter 24
TiCara woke up to the howl of the Astra’s alarms in her ears. She rolled free of Sherin’s arms and into her blacksuit with a couple of fluid motions. Sherin was still sitting up when TiCara hit the button for the door and bolted out into the corridor. What had gone wrong? And why hadn’t the ship or Erol told her about it sooner?
She remembered that Erol was still confined to quarters with a jolt. Thinking about his betrayal sent a sharp pang through her. A part of her still couldn’t believe it. Yet here she was, racing for the Bridge while her ship bucked and surged around her and its alarms screeched, but with no loyal Second at her heels. Something must have gone wrong with the autopilot, but what?
Another lurch and this time, she knew that the ship was under attack, almost certainly hit. Pirates or corp ship? Both? Neither possibility boded well for their continued survival. She grabbed for the ladder going up to the Bridge only to be hurled off the rungs by the ship’s sudden motion. Her stomach lurched with the shock as she rolled head over heels across the corridor. They must be going down, but going down where?
The asteroid? Had Vahn lied about the coordinates again? Were they were going down on one of the Gathwaite planets? But they weren’t close enough to any of them. Or they hadn’t been. She scrambled to regain her footing and shoved her medusas out of her face. They were swirling around her head in a cloud, confused by her terror as much as by her sudden and unexpected movements.
Then, the smash of sudden impact shook her to the core as her head hit the nearest wall. Everything went black as the Astra’s power failed, but she was still seeing a rainbow of stars when she was able to open her eyes. It took everything she had left to crawl toward where she thought the ladder was.
The dim light of the emergency power clicked on as she found the bottom rung of the ladder by hitting her hand on the metal. She dragged herself upward, rung by rung until she could stand on her unsteady feet. What had happened to her ship? To Sherin, her crew and her passengers? A sick dread filled her and for a long moment, she didn’t wa
nt to know what was waiting for her on the Bridge.
But she put one foot on the lowest rung and then the next anyway. This was her responsibility, her life, and she wouldn’t just let it go. The hatch was closed, something she hadn’t seen from the floor below. She shoved at the cover, trying to force it open. But it was stuck, bolted or blocked, from the other side. She’d have to find something to use to force it open.
TiCara slid back down the ladder and ran for Engineering. She found Ji-min there, sitting up slowly and staring groggily at the damage around them. Captain. What tell? They turned their head to one side, then the other, as TiCara checked them for injuries. They flinched as the pilot grabbed a medkit from storage and slapped a patch on their bleeding head wound. Ji-min stretched experimentally, checking for more injuries. Then they stood up, with some help from a nearby console cabinet and TiCara. Rest of the crew, Captain?
Don’t know. Can’t reach the Bridge. TiCara frowned at the broken equipment and sparking wires around them. Came to plug in. See if you can find a comm? She went to look for an undamaged console. A few moment banging on a panel got it open and she plugged herself in, letting the ship’s pain and distress wash over and through her.
The Astra began, sluggishly, to tell her things: they were on a planetoid of some kind, the ship was too damaged to fly right now and there were still some living life forms aboard. Her heart thudded into her throat as she checked for life signs. Two on the Bridge, one in her quarters, one in the crew quarters, Ji-min and herself. But how badly were any of them injured?
She commed Sherin while Ji-min checked on Vijay. A burst of joy filled her at the sound of Sherin’s voice telling her that she was bruised and cut, but otherwise not hurt. That she would check on Erol while TiCara checked on the passengers.
Vahn. There was one life sign missing from her count. And there were two on the Bridge where there should have been none. She triggered the emergency controls to unlock the hatch and pulled free from the computer. I need to go check on the Bridge. Vijay? Ji-min was already at the door, a medkit in their hands. The engineer nodded reassuringly and TiCara gestured at them to go, with a sigh of relief.
She went the opposite direction, swinging herself up a level and jogging down the corridor. If they were on Electra, she wondered how much time they had before the lab security showed up to find out who was on board. Then she wondered what they would do with anyone they found. The answer would be even worse if they’d been
hit by pirates; she had to remember that. If that had happened, Vahn was the only one worth keeping for a hostage.
They wouldn’t have much time before they found out either way. She grabbed a piece of broken metal as she raced for the Bridge, hoping she could use it as a lever if the hatch was still blocked. She hit the hatch hard, the sound echoing around the floor. It still held and she hit it again. Need help? Sherin was climbing up the ladder on the opposite side, her body pressed against TiCara’s, with only the rungs to separate them.
TiCara kissed her, desire and relief and joy all packed into the touch of her lips. Erol? She asked as she pulled back a little.
His room was open. I don’t know where he went. Ser Vahn’s quarters looked empty too. Sherin tilted her head back and looked at the closed hatch. Think all three of them went up on the Bridge?
TiCara looked up from the jagged piece of metal in her hand to the closed hatch. Let’s find out. Together, they shoved against it until it opened slightly. As they opened a little more, they could hear someone on the other side, moving around. Then the hatch swung open to reveal Sammo’s face looking down at them.
Pilot-Captain. I am pleased to see that you are well. He stepped back as they climbed up the ladder. If he was equally pleased to see Sherin, he didn’t say so. But his hands stayed at his sides and he didn’t reach for his weapon, so TiCara nodded her acknowledgment.
Vahn was on the ship’s external comm, talking to someone. Erol was in the pilot’s chair beside him, sitting very still. There was a trail of blood under the chair, some of it still dripping from his head.
TiCara ran to his side and checked for a pulse. For a wild moment, she thought she felt one, but after checking his neck and wrist and a taking a long look at his still face, she knew that it was only her imagination. She dropped to the floor beside him and held his cold limp hand, rocking in place as tears trickled down her face. With all her heart, she wished that their last encounter had not been about distrust and betrayal. She wanted to keen her sorrow, to vent her pain in howls, but this was not the time; she would not, could not break down in front of Vahn.
When she felt Sherin’s light touch on her shoulder, she opened her eyes and looked up. He saved my life. I trusted him. He was my friend. She swallowed her tears as best she could, as Sherin squeezed her shoulder in a gesture of sympathy and warning. Grieving her Second could come later, but for the moment, Sherin’s touch had pulled her back to the room. Now that she was paying attention, she could hear what Vahn was saying and could guess who he was talking to.
I have transferred the credits that you required. I require immediate medical assistance. Do I have your assurance that a vehicle will be sent to fetch me? The old man was bleeding from a wound on his shoulder and was favoring that side, but his voice was strong.
TiCara watched him and wondered if any of her crew would get the same assistance on Electra. She doubted it. But as long as she made sure that he paid her, anything was possible.
Vahn got whatever response he was waiting for and answered before setting down the mic. He closed his eyes and his breathing slowed in an obvious effort to recover and control the pain from his injuries..
It was time to remind him of their deal, now, before it was too late. We’re on Electra, Ser. I will need the credits we agreed upon to fix my ship and to get medical attention for my crew.
In good time, Pilot-Captain. I will meet first with the technicians and hear my prognosis. Then I will know what I still have available. He stood up slowly.
TiCara jumped to her feet, her hand looking for the lazer in her belt that was no longer there. She cursed, realizing that she must have dropped it when she fell off the ladder. Sammo stepped forward, his weapon out and focused not on the pilot, but on Sherin. Vahn spoke for him, Not a risk I would take, Pilot-Captain. Even if you were armed, which you are not.
That is not the deal that we made, Ser. I thought you an honorable man, for the head of a corp. TiCara spat her words at him. Somewhere in the wreckage of her Bridge, there had to be something she could use as a weapon. If she threw something at Sammo and distracted him, she might be able to get across the room in time and get his weapon. Before he shot Sherin.
The thought froze her in her tracks and that hesitation cost her valuable seconds. That was long enough for Vahn to make his slow way across the room, staying carefully behind Sammo. He never looked at Sherin. It was as if she had ceased to exist for him. But as he reached the ladder, he turned and glanced at TiCara. "I am still an honorable man, Pilot-Captain. You have what I already paid you. As soon as I know what will happen next, you will
have more."
And with that, he scrambled down the ladder. Sammo glanced after him, then back up at the two of them. He tipped them a two-fingered salute and a nod and followed his employer to the level below. TiCara muttered a guttural curse and forced her fists to unclench.
Sherin reached for her, enfolding her hands in her own. What are we going to do now?
Check on Vijay. Ji-min’s not badly hurt, fortunately, as far as I could see. But we need to be sure, run med scans on everyone. See how bad the damage to the ship is, make sure life support is still up and running. Then suit up, go down to the surface and see if we can get in to the labs and see what we can get from them. I think if we go in person we’ll be harder to refuse. She bent down and kissed Sherin’s fingers. We starshine?
Always, Sherin’s face was glowing a little. She reached out very slowly, touched a cautious finger to one of the pilot�
�s medusas. She pulled away quickly, but there was a tenderness in her touch that thrilled TiCara and made her want to take the other woman in her arms and kiss her. But she wouldn’t stop there and neither would Sherin, so she settled for giving the rep a kiss on the nose.
Sherin blushed and grinned as if she was reading her thoughts. Let’s go. Before we can’t.
TiCara grinned back, but her smile faded as she looked around the Bridge. It was a blackhole mess, but how serious was it? She moved some of the debris around and ran her fingers over the nav console. Sherin started clearing out the area around the pilot’s chair, piling broken pieces in one corner.
It was she who closed Erol’s eyes and unfastened the harness holding him in place so that TiCara wouldn’t have to do it. They would have to find a way to dispose of his body. She’d heard stories about spacers setting the bodies of dead crew adrift in space, but that didn’t seem like something TiCara would do. Maybe she’d want to take the body back to Kraybourne and give it to his primary. It was a decision that they needed to make soon.
But one look at TiCara’s face was enough to tell anyone watching that this wasn’t the time. The occasional tear trickled down her cheek and she was looking very hard at the wreckage on the Bridge, never at the body of her Second. Why don’t you go check on Vijay and Ji-min? I’ll see what I can do here until you’re ready, Sherin volunteered.
Ready for what?
I...I need to try to get into the labs, not just for the ship. For me. And I want you to go with me. Sherin’s voice trembled a little with her words.
TiCara stepped over and enfolded her in a fierce hug. They held each other, swaying until it felt like they might never let go. But TiCara did let go, at last, though the look on her face said it was only temporary. You’re right. I need to make sure that they’re okay before we go out there. Back soon? She caressed Sherin’s cheek with one cold hand, and added, Will you be okay here?
Sherin nodded and watched her drop down the ladder. Then she looked around the Bridge, assessing what could be salvaged and what needed repair. She covered Erol’s still body with a tarp from a broken storage unit and went to work.
Medusa's Touch Page 19