Hold Fast Through the Fire

by K. B. Wagers

  “It’s a hard thing to live with,” Hoboins said, the quiet gravel of his voice breaking into Nika’s thoughts. “I won’t lie to you and say it’ll never happen. You hope it won’t, you train to keep it from happening, but sometimes things are outside of our control. Aren’t they?”

  Nika followed the admiral’s pointed gaze down to his right hand. “Yes, sir.”

  “Is the issue that you’ve got your sister and Max to watch over?” As gentle as the question was, it was also unexpected and Nika stared at Hoboins in confusion until the man lifted a shoulder. “I didn’t think it was, but it’s worth eliminating the obvious.”

  “It’s not them.” Nika shook his head. “If anything, they’re more competent at this than I am in every way.”

  “That’s pure-grade horseshit.” Hoboins waved a hand in the air. “Is that fear what’s keeping you from doing your job?”

  “No, sir.” The words were out before Nika even thought of them and something he was sure was relief flashed across Hoboins’s face.

  “I didn’t think so. You are the opposite of your sister in so many ways, Nika.”

  “You know we’re not actually related, Admiral, right?”

  Hoboins snorted and waved his hand. “We don’t all get the privilege you two did, of choosing your family, but you’re family all the same. And you are the thinker, sometimes to the point that you tie yourself up in knots over it, son.

  “Now, if you ever tell Jenks I told you that it would benefit you to be a little more like her on occasion, I will not only deny it but I will bust your ass back down to ensign.” Hoboins didn’t crack a smile as he slid a tablet over his desk. “You’re going back out into the black tomorrow with the task force. Flux and Hunter will stay on this side of the wormhole. Zuma and Dread will be on the Trappist side. I’m telling you this before the briefing so that if you need me to argue for keeping you on this side I can.”

  “I appreciate it, Admiral, but I’ll be fine.”

  “Okay.” Hoboins nodded. “You talking to your therapist?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. It helps, trust me.”

  Nika wasn’t sure how to decipher the admiral’s comment, but rather than ask, he allowed the thing he really wanted to say out into the air. “This would be easier if I could just tell them what we were doing.”

  “Maybe,” Hoboins replied. “But maybe not. I’m not going to overrule Stephan on his own operation, Nika. Moreover, I agree with him that the less they know here, the safer they are. These people aren’t ones to underestimate. And you know your crew—what do you think would happen if Max and Jenks knew someone was blackmailing their Neo?”

  Nika let out the breath he’d been holding and thought about how determined Jenks had been when Max had been kidnapped by the woman wanting to destroy LifeEx Industries. “They’d stop at nothing to get the bastards.”

  “Right. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, Nika, but they are dedicated to the idea that this is a family and right now they can both afford to treat it that way. You’re in a unique position here and a difficult one, but you need the clarity that seeing the bigger picture brings.” Hoboins touched the panel on his desk at the chime and the door slid open.

  “Josa’s here to see you, Lee,” Commander Lou Seve said, poking her head into his office.

  “I look forward to your report when you get back, Commander,” Admiral Hoboins said to Nika.

  “Thank you, sir. We’ll see you in a few weeks.”

  He headed out of the office with an absent wave in Lou’s direction, his thoughts already spinning as he walked down the corridor toward the zero-g tube.

  Maybe I need to keep the space between me and Max. It would make it easier on all of us.

  Max was waiting at the door of Zuma’s quarters. “Do you have a minute?” she asked, following him toward his room.

  “Not really.” It came out sharper than he wanted and he saw the flinch she couldn’t quite hide.

  “I’d like to apologize.” Her words stopped him cold and Nika looked around the main room. The others were suddenly very busily not paying attention. “You were right and I overreacted. I’m sorry.”

  “I appreciate it.” The words were cold and didn’t feel like his. “We’re headed back out tomorrow, briefing is this afternoon.”

  The soft smile on Max’s face died. “Nika—”

  “Was there anything else, Lieutenant?”

  “No. Nothing at all.” Max turned around and walked out of their quarters.

  Jenks slipped off her bunk almost as soon as Max was gone. “Permission to say something as your sister, Commander?”

  Nika knew he was going to regret it, but he nodded anyway. “Granted.”

  “I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re being a fucking asshole.”

  He clenched his jaw against the urge to tell her everything. “Noted. Have the others get their gear prepped.”

  “Nika, what is your deal?” The frustrated love on her face cut him, but he ignored it and gave her a level look.

  “That’s an order, Chief.”

  “Fine, Commander.” She turned on her heel and walked away, her back ramrod straight.

  Nika rubbed a hand over his eyes with a muttered curse and headed for his room.

  Max tapped her fingers on the console as she studied the traffic patterns of the ships on the Trappist side of the wormhole; the real-time data gave her something to do as they waited out in the empty space. Things had been quiet so far, but the same restless, anxious feeling she’d had just refused to abate.

  And it seems like I’m not the only one.

  “Sapphi, what is it?” she finally asked. The ensign had been fidgeting in her seat on the bridge for the first twenty minutes of their shift and Max couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Nothing, LT. I was just thinking about this time my fathers took us camping along the Haliacmon, but they didn’t listen to Mom about how much food we kids could eat and . . .”

  Before Max could tell Sapphi to hush, the message came through on her DD. Not on the team chat but in private mode.

  Sapphi: I don’t know how good you are at talking and chatting at the same time, LT, but I really need you to not interrupt me or say anything out loud right now.

  Max: What is going on?

  Sapphi: I was doing diagnostics before we left and kept getting a weird pingback but I couldn’t isolate it.

  Max: Can you give me more than “weird pingback” to go on?

  Sapphi: There’s something interfering with my coms, but not enough to really be an issue. It’s not supposed to be there. I tried to talk to Nika about it, but he said it was nothing.

  Max had to swallow back the urge to snort at that. Apparently she wasn’t the only one Nika was blowing off. She hated that he’d pushed her to this, but Max knew she was going to have to talk to Hoboins when they got back to Jupiter Station. Something had to change, and judging from the tension between Nika and everyone else it was going to have to be him.

  Max: I’m sorry he did that. What did you find?

  Sapphi: There’s definitely something, LT. I finally got the signal sorted. I think there’s a listening device on the bridge.

  “A what?”

  Sapphi didn’t even pause, but she did make a face. “A fish, LT, keep up. They tried to make us eat fish from the river and we all rebelled. Mom laughed for days.”

  Sorry, Max mouthed. “I like your parents quite a bit.”

  “They like you, too, LT. They keep asking me when we’re going to visit again.”

  Max: Do you know where it is?

  Sapphi: No, which means either it’s not hardwired into my systems, or it’s just so damn good I can’t find it. But if I were hiding a bug on my bridge I’d put it over there somewhere on the far wall.

  Max: Just audio or do you think it’s recording video?

  Sapphi: My guess from the data is just audio. It records in four-hour chunks and then fires off the package. I’m pretty
sure it’s not in our network and just piggybacking off the coms to send out the transmission. At least I really hope it isn’t smart enough to avoid my security on that front. What a nightmare.

  Max: Can you trace where it’s getting sent?

  Sapphi: Maybe? I’d need to look at the actual device.

  Max held up a hand as she got out of her seat and crossed to the far wall. She ran her hand across the sides of the com panel, reaching around the back and finding nothing . . .

  Until she dropped her hand lower and felt a round disc under her fingertips. Max gestured with her other hand for Sapphi to join her.

  Max: Can I take it off?

  Sapphi: Let me see it first, LT.

  Max: You won’t be able to get a visual.

  Sapphi: Trust me. ;)

  Max held her breath as Sapphi reached around the main console and put her fingers in the same spot. When the ensign nodded, Max pulled away. She kept an eye on the door to the bridge as Sapphi examined the device.

  Sapphi: Definitely a bug, LT, sophisticated, too. I want to know who dirtied up my ship. Should I take it down?

  Max: Let’s leave it for now. I don’t know what it will do and we’re a little too far out from Trappist if something goes wrong. I’ll talk to Nika.

  Sapphi: You think he’ll actually listen?

  Max: . . .

  Sapphi: Sorry, LT, that was unkind.

  Max: I don’t blame you.

  The scanner chimed and Max stepped away from the panel, returning to the pilot seat to check the main console. “Odd. What would a C-class freighter be doing out here alone?”

  “What?” Sapphi joined her. “They’re not getting through the wormhole without a ride.”

  “Unless they’ve got the ability to make a wormhole on their own? Then they could avoid traffic control.”

  “I thought that was restricted tech.”

  Max shook her head. “It is. And expensive. But the tech’s evolving. Look at that newest transport we scored—it’s about the size of a C-class freighter.”

  “True.” Sapphi sighed and sank into her chair, throwing a look toward the com panel before speaking softly. “Sometimes it feels like we’re making all the same mistakes over again, LT. Always pushing to make things better, and where does it lead us?” She pointed at the screen. “People using it for shit reasons.”

  Max didn’t know how to reply to that, so she hit the com instead. “Dread Treasure, this is Lieutenant Carmichael. You reading that freighter?”

  “Roger that, Lieutenant,” D’Arcy replied. “We were about to order them to heave to for an inspection and accounting on why they’re so far out of the regular shipping lanes. I’ll put it on the main com.”

  “Appreciate it.”

  “Freighter McConel’s Pride, this is NeoG Interceptor Dread Treasure. You’re a bit outside your normal route.”

  “Hello, Dread Treasure. Special assignment from the higher-ups at Trappist Express. We were delivering some supplies to Trappist and are supposed to meet our return pickup, but there’s been no sign of them.”

  Max shared a look with Sapphi, alarms screaming in her mind. “They’re headed the wrong direction for a pickup to the wormhole,” she murmured.

  “I’m not showing any record of that in our files, McConel. Please heave to so we can hook up and do an inspection.”

  D’Arcy had barely finished the order when Max saw the thrusters on the freighter light up. She swore. “Sapphi, hang on.” She slapped the general quarters alarm on the console and the klaxon blared through the ship.

  “This captain is not smart,” D’Arcy said over the com.

  “Or they’re too smart. D’Arcy, I have a bad feeling about this.” Max froze at the sudden press of Nika’s hand on her shoulder.

  “Hey, D’Arcy. It’s Nika. Fire a warning shot.”

  “Can do, Nika.”

  Max was surprised by the edge in D’Arcy’s voice and tried to push aside the sudden uneasy rolling of her gut as she glanced up at Nika and saw his mouth was drawn into a thin line.

  What do you know that I don’t, Nika?

  “Freighter McConel’s Pride, this is your warning shot. The next one will put your ship out of commission. Heave to and prepare to be boarded.”

  The freighter did not answer, nor did it slow its desperate flight away from the two NeoG ships. The first shot from Dread Treasure streaked just past the nose of the ship and Max started the count in her head for the required two-minute delay between the warning shot and the next one. She shifted Zuma’s Ghost’s course without saying anything so they were slightly farther away from Dread than standard.

  “Freighter McConel’s Pride, this is your last warning. Heave to now. You—” D’Arcy’s transmission cut off.

  “Max, Dread’s gone dark,” Sapphi’s voice was steady, but the announcement froze everyone—except Max.

  Reflexively, she threw Zuma into a downward angle, hitting the thrusters hard.

  “What are you doing?” Nika demanded.

  “Keeping us out of their blast range,” she snapped. “I’ve got the helm, Nika. Tamago, is Dread still there?” The question was like the sharp edge of a sword in her throat.

  “Yes,” Tamago replied. “Intact, just no energy output. EMP maybe? But that freighter shouldn’t have any weapons on it.”

  Being stranded out this far was basically a death sentence. While someone from Jupiter Station would come looking when they didn’t report back, with no beacon or coms to guide them it would be like trying to find an eyelash on the ocean floor.

  “Everyone hang on to something.” Having issued a warning this time, Max pulled the ship straight up. They were practically underneath the freighter, just off the stern. “Sapphi, when I say now, I want you to fire the rail gun at them.”

  “Max, you can’t fire on an unarmed freighter,” Nika said.

  “We did a warning shot,” she snapped, unsurprised by his protest but disappointed nonetheless.

  “We don’t know what’s going on with Dread. They could have just had a coms malfunction.”

  “Are you kidding me? I’m not waiting around for them to figure out they missed us and take a second shot. Now, Sapphi.”

  The ensign fired the rail gun before Nika could protest a second time. The superheated projectile streaked through the black and slammed into the back end of the freighter, a fountain of fire appearing as the oxygen in the breached ship caught ablaze.

  “Freighter McConel’s Pride, this is Lieutenant Carmichael of the Interceptor Zuma’s Ghost. Your engine is damaged. Heave to now or I’m going to put another shot right through the middle of your ship.”

  “Max, crew manifest says fourteen people.” Jenks’s voice was loud in the sudden silence on the bridge.

  “Everyone suit up. Sapphi, not you. You get on the com and tell Trappist we need a tow for Dread and something bigger here as fast as they can make it.” Max pushed out of her seat as the others started moving.

  But Nika hadn’t and she looked down at the hand wrapped around her upper arm. “We’re not boarding them. They outnumber us more than two to one.”

  “The hell we’re not,” she replied, managing to keep her voice low at the last second. “I’m not sitting around waiting to see if they get the engine working again or, even worse, that weapon.”

  “Max—”

  “What is wrong with you?” she hissed. “This is our lives and Dread’s on the line here and you’re just standing there.” A sudden, sick certainty flooded her. “Like you expected this to happen.”

  “Max—”

  She pulled out of his grip and crossed to the coms panel, ripping the listening device free and holding it up for a moment before she dropped it and crushed it beneath her boot heel. She got right in Nika’s face. “I don’t know what you are up to, Nika Vagin, and I hope to hell it’s not anything that’s going to require me to relieve you of command. But we’ve had a fucking listening device on this bridge for who knows how long and that fr
eighter was sent here to take both our ships out. I want to know what’s going on.”

  He said nothing.

  He’d known.

  She watched the truth of it echo in his blue eyes and her heart broke into pieces.

  Nika, what have you done?

  “Lieutenant, I’m getting a com from a Navy vessel,” Sapphi said. “It’s the Laika. They are less than five minutes out.”

  Max stared at Nika. She didn’t want to believe he was somehow working for the smugglers, but how else had he known about the freighter? Known they might come upon this ship and this level of danger and hadn’t breathed a word of it to her. The surprise and betrayal coiling in her gut made her next words cruel. “You are not fit for command. Sapphi, tell the Laika we’re boarding. I’m assuming my brother is on board and I’d appreciate the backup.”

  “Max.” Nika’s voice was hoarse. “I can explain, just not here.”

  Tamago and Sapphi were watching her. She could see Jenks and Chae by the stairs, the pair of them wearing identical horrified expressions. Max dragged in a breath as she wrapped the armor of her job around her and shoved everything else to the side.

  “You stay by my side, and I swear, if you even think about stabbing me in the back I won’t hesitate to take you down.”

  She didn’t wait for his reply as she turned and headed for the airlock.

  Fourteen

  Nika stood off to the side of the freighter’s cargo bay with Scott. Eleven of the crew had surrendered immediately, apparently moved to do so by Max’s implacable warning message before they had boarded.

  After a hard look at her brother, Max had left Nika and Chae to watch over the surrendered crew while she, Tamago, and Jenks went after the three who were loose on the ship.