by K. B. Wagers
And if not, better me than my crew, she thought. “Chae, you feel okay? Wiggle your fingers and toes for me?”
“Yes.”
Jenks saw Max’s boots as she rolled onto her back. “Reasonably sure Chae doesn’t have a spine injury, Max, but it’s a risk we need to take no matter what. Okay, you’re good to grab them by the boots and when I say go, you pull them free. Tivo, just keep it all from crashing sideways.”
“Jenks—”
She snorted at the warning in his voice. “Trust me, I’m a professional.” She braced her hands and feet on the underside of the box and took a deep breath. “Go!”
The box was heavier than she’d thought and Jenks gritted her teeth as her legs protested. “Fuck.” She was not going to be able to push it over and roll out of the way like she’d planned.
Worry about that later.
Chae slid free and half a second later Tivo put a shoulder into the edge of the box between Jenks’s feet, taking the weight off her legs. “Chae’s clear. I got it, Pocket, get out of there.”
Jenks wriggled free. “Clear.” She hopped to her feet and between the two of them she and Tivo were able to lower the crate safely to the floor. Several others shifted behind it with a deadly rattle, but Max had dragged Chae toward the far door, well out of range.
Jenks knelt by Max, who was cupping the back of Chae’s head. Jenks frowned. “How the fuck did you get a black eye? If any of these bins had hit you in the head we’d be scraping your brains off the deck.”
The thought made her shudder.
“I’m sorry,” the spacer murmured, but then they passed out.
“Jenks!” Nika’s voice echoed from the corridor and Jenks shared a look with Max.
“I’ll stay with them,” Max said, and Jenks nodded, getting to her feet as the medical team rushed into the room.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know, Commander.” It was easier to slip into the formality. Jenks could pack all her worries and fears into the box and focus on what she was supposed to do rather than what she was feeling. “About ten minutes ago Spacer Chae told me they were going for a walk to stretch their legs. I approved it. Told them to be careful. About five minutes ago Spacer Chae shouted my name on the team channel and then went quiet. Doge had a location. We found them here and extracted them.”
Jenks could hear Tivo talking to someone in the background and tried to keep her focus on Nika, but it was difficult.
“I want to see the security footage for Storage Three,” Tivo was saying. “What do you mean out of commission? There was no maintenance scheduled for today. No, Commodore Carmichael is on his way, you can tell him—”
“Jenks,” Nika said.
“What?”
“I asked if you were hurt?”
“Sorry. No, I’m fine. I’m going to go with them to medical, okay?”
Nika’s eyes slid past her to where Max was talking with the orderly as they lifted Chae’s stretcher into the air. “That’s fine.”
Jenks met the medics at the door, stepping into the hallway so they could pass. She fell into step with her lieutenant, the seething rage in her chest drowning under the weight of her worry for her crew.
“It’s not just me, right, Max? Something’s going on here. I don’t believe for one second that was an accident. Someone hurt Chae deliberately.”
“It’s not just you,” Max murmured back, her face grim.
“I’m not gonna lie, for once in my life I wish you’d said I was imagining things.”
“Miraculously, Spacer Chae doesn’t have a concussion or any internal injuries beyond some bruised ribs.” Commander Nebula Pach pointed out the areas on Chae’s scan to Max and Jenks as she spoke. “I’m going to let them sleep, but you’re welcome to stay. I’d recommend keeping them here until we get to Trappist. Unless the scans change, they’ll be fit for duty once you get on the ground.”
“That’s less than twenty-four hours. You sure, Doc?” Jenks asked the question before Max could.
“I’m sure, Chief.” Commander Pach’s expression was even, but Max could see the amused annoyance in her blue eyes. “It could have been a lot worse. They got lucky.”
Max shared a look with Jenks as the doctor turned away. “Do you want to stay here?” she asked.
“Yeah, but I was right in the middle of tuning up the stabilizers when this happened. I should finish it.” Jenks scrubbed at her head in frustration. “I’ll go back to the ship, fill Tamago and Sapphi in on everything.”
“Do it outside the ship,” Max said.
“I will, though knowing Sapphi she’s been obsessively going over every system and running every scan she’s got in her arsenal to make sure Zuma is clean.”
“Good.” Max nodded. “I trust her.”
“Max, about Nika . . .”
Max could see the hesitation in Jenks’s eyes and she shook her head before the chief could start in. “You don’t need to get involved.”
“The hell I don’t, this is my crew, too. I asked him straight up if this was above board or not and he said it was. I’d like to think my own brother wouldn’t lie to me.”
It hurt that what she had to say might ruin the friendship between them, but Max knew she couldn’t let the words keep rolling around in her head or she might end up screaming. “I thought he wouldn’t lie to me, either, Jenks, but I was apparently wrong.”
Jenks was silent for a long moment, then she nodded as if coming to a decision. “Whatever this is, I got your back, LT.” She tapped her fist to her heart.
Max was so stunned she almost missed the handshake, but recovered and connected with the back of Jenks’s fist. Blinking away the tears, she leaned in and touched her forehead to her friend’s. “I’ve got yours.”
When Jenks was gone, Max sank into the chair by Chae’s bed and tried to go back to the report she’d been composing before the accident.
A message notification pinged on her DD.
Carmichael, R: Max, do you have time to talk?
Carmichael, M: Give me a moment.
“Commander, do you have a com panel I can borrow?”
Nebula looked away from the orderly she was speaking with. “Absolutely. You can use the one in my office.”
“Thank you.” Max followed the direction the woman was pointing to the open door and sat down at the desk. It seemed safer to route the call through Zuma now that the ship was hooked into the Laika’s coms and had a longer range. She trusted the ensign’s encryptions more than anyone else’s right now. “Sapphi, are we clean?”
“We are.”
“Can you route a call to Ria for me?”
“Putting it through now.”
“Max.” Ria’s eyes were red-rimmed and swollen and the sick feeling that had been steadily building rose up to choke Max. “Jeanie was in an accident. Her air car—I—” She dragged in a breath, composed herself. “They don’t know if she’s going to make it. I know you two weren’t on the best of terms but I didn’t know who else to call—”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Max caught herself reaching for the screen and dropped her hand back to the desk. “Breathe for me, Ria. Where are you?”
“Home. Jonah made me come back here. He thought it would be safer, until they’re sure it was an accident.”
Max issued a silent prayer of gratitude for her sister’s bodyguard. “It’s a good idea. Jeanie would want you safe just in case. What hospital?”
“She’s at Sayreville General. I’m listed as her next of kin.” Ria’s eyes filled with tears. “Max, I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose her.”
Max looked up at the knock and the door slid open to reveal her brother. She waved him in. “Ria, Scott’s here.”
“You’re talking to Ria?”
“Why are you with Scott?”
Max ignored both questions. “Bosco was hurt in an accident.” She couldn’t stop the slight hesitation before she said the word and hoped neither of them noticed.
“Ria, are you all right?” Scott came around the desk and leaned into the com frame.
“I wasn’t with her. For once I didn’t work late but she did.”
“It’s okay.” Scott’s voice was soothing and Max shifted out of the chair so he could slide into it. The conversation faded into the background and Max wrapped her arms around her waist.
This was my fault. I asked Jeanie to look into Julia from the bridge. The listening device was probably already there. They heard it all.
This wasn’t an accident.
The conflicting emotions of guilt and growing certainty that all of this was connected tangled themselves into a hot ball in her stomach.
“Max.”
She turned around, almost running into Scott. “Sorry, what?”
“Ria said she’d talk to you later and thank you.” He studied her for a moment. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“I asked Jeanie to look into Chae’s girlfriend for me.” The story spilled out of her in a rush.
Scott listened. He listened to the whole thing without interrupting her or second-guessing her and it was a shock how badly Max needed that right now.
“Let me put a call in to Jonah. Bosco likely kept him up to date on things, and even though this didn’t have anything to do with LifeEx she might have mentioned it.” He rubbed at his face. “I think you should go get some sleep. When we get on the ground at Trappist, you can hash this out with Nika and get everything sorted.”
“You’re right.” Max would have laughed at the surprised look on her brother’s face if she hadn’t suddenly been tired all the way to her bones. “I’ll see if the doc has a bed I can borrow. I don’t want to leave Chae alone.”
“Go on back to your ship,” Scott said. “I’ll stay with them.”
Max hugged him tight. “Thanks. I’m glad you’re here.” She headed back to the Interceptor, surprised by the polite greetings from the spacers as she passed. News of Chae’s injuries had spread through the ship.
“The only thing faster than light is gossip,” she murmured to herself as she crossed the bay. Jenks wasn’t under the ship, which meant she’d likely finished up what she’d been working on. Max climbed the ladder. “Hey, Sapphi,” she called up the stairs to the bridge.
“LT. Ship’s clean. I triple-checked and then rechecked everything. If there is another bug on Zuma it is way out of my league.”
“Good. Can you put another call in for me? To Rosa. I’ll take it in my room.”
“Can do.” Sapphi nodded once and turned back to the console.
Max settled onto her bunk with her tablet, and held in the sob when the com connected.
“Max, how are you?”
“Rosa, do you have a minute to talk?”
The smile on Commander Rosa Martín’s face faded into motherly concern. “Of course I do. What’s going on?”
Interstitial
Stephan stopped pacing the length of the makeshift office on Trappist-1d and rubbed a hand over his face with a sigh as he stood next to Luis. “How did this entire thing turn into such a clusterfuck in the span of a few hours?”
“You can’t blame Max for being good at her job, Stephan. Of course she went to Bosco for information,” Scott replied. “I told you we should have read all four crews in from the beginning. They could have kept Chae in the dark, or better yet coached them on how to handle the whole thing.”
“Which would have left us with Chae either further isolated or worse, overconfident, Scott. We’ve talked about this. I don’t want the kid feeling like they have nowhere to turn, but we need them to be scared.”
“Better scared than crushed by boxes. They already feel like that, Stephan, and it’s only going to get worse from here. I say when we land on Trappist we lay the whole thing out.”
“I second that,” Tivo said from Scott’s side. “Jenks is suspicious as hell. I had to lean on her a bit to keep her from reporting to the COB that she suspected someone of beating up her Neo.”
“Then you keep leaning if you have to,” Stephan replied. “I’ve already said no to reading Zuma fully into this, never mind the other three Interceptor teams. We had a backup plan in case you lost the freighter, so we’ll use it.” Stephan met Scott’s glare with a patient look. “Do I need to remind you this is a NeoG operation, Commodore, and you’re only here as a courtesy?”
“You don’t.”
The screen went black as Scott disconnected the feed from the Laika. Stephan turned and studied the opposite wall. Tieg’s image shimmered in the projection. On his right was the image of another man with hard eyes. On the left was a blank silhouette.
Stephan followed the trail. He still didn’t know who was pulling the strings on the shipping side. Whoever it was had been careful to avoid all his sources. There was nothing in writing, no video he could scrape an ID from.
From the intel he’d pieced together there was cargo on this freighter that would potentially break that mystery by flushing whoever was in charge of the shipping out into the open. If he dangled it as bait he knew they would do their best to keep the cargo from reaching the NeoG warehouse. Hurting Chae was the least of it—if anything, it was just a message to everyone that Tieg had even more people on the inside.
What a clusterfuck.
“Okay,” Stephan said. “After we lay out the cover story, I’ll mention that we’re moving the confiscated goods from the impounded freighter to the warehouse.”
“Why?” Luis asked.
“Chae will pass the info along. After what happened to their friend, they can’t risk not cooperating.”
“Why don’t we just bring Chae in again?”
“Did I not just explain all that? Because we can’t risk whoever’s behind this getting suspicious. They’ve somehow got someone to send a message to Chae while on the Laika. That’s a hell of a reach. Until I figure out how, I can’t risk it, and this may be our one shot to find out who Tieg’s got running this operation.”
“If we at least read the rest of Zuma in, they could watch Chae,” Luis protested. “And maybe have some other ideas.”
“I am not having this discussion with you, too, Senior Chief.”
“Yes, you are. I want it on the record that I don’t agree with this. Chae could have been killed. Are you done trying to use that kid as bait, or are you going to push this until someone from the NeoG dies, too?”
Stephan raised an eyebrow at the set of Luis’s jaw. “Your objection is noted, Senior Chief,” he replied. “But the more people we let in, the more dangerous this gets for everyone. We will proceed as planned. If we catch them, this will be wrapped up and we can bring Tieg down for good.”
“And if we don’t, more people are going to get hurt.”
“People are already getting hurt. Dismissed.”
Sixteen
Nika pretended the stiff silence on Zuma’s bridge wasn’t because of him as Max piloted the Interceptor down to the landing pad at NeoG Trappist headquarters just outside the city of Amanave . . . but he knew it was.
“Many thanks, Landing Control,” Max said as she powered the ship down. “Your orders, Commander?”
Her cold formality stung.
“Stephan’s got a temporary office in HQ. The others will meet us there.”
The crew of Dread was headed back to Jupiter with their ship on the Laika. The EMP shot from that freighter had fried nearly every circuit in the Interceptor and it was going to take weeks—and the full resources of Jupiter Station—to get it sorted. However, D’Arcy had decided that as head of the task force he would stay behind and ride back with Zuma rather than going with his crew.
Nika was agonized that he would have to face down D’Arcy also, but he couldn’t argue with the man. Stephan had seemed to agree that keeping the task force leader in the loop was a good way to make whatever story he was going to spin tie back to the original mission. Though he’d insisted that the other two teams on the task force didn’t need to know, especially
since they were close to wrapping everything up. So Flux and Hunter had stayed on the Jupiter side of the juncture to continue their patrols.
Stephan seemed certain they could play off ST-1’s presence on Trappist-1d as necessary since they were down a ship, and Nika hoped he was right.
He headed off the Interceptor. Chae looked haunted, with bruises decorating their face. They were moving a little stiffly, but otherwise had been cleared by the Laika’s doctor to come back to duty.
The others wouldn’t even look at him, though Jenks did spare a quick glance and a hopeful smile on her way by.
Is it going to get worse or better when they find out the truth?
Like Luis and Scott, he wished Stephan wouldn’t go with the backup plan they’d had in place and instead decide to tell everyone the whole truth. As much as it would hurt, at least it would be over with and Nika could figure out where to go from there.
But the instructions from Stephan before they arrived at Trappist had been clear—even if the reasoning wasn’t—and Nika had little choice but to obey. He knew what was at stake here. If Tieg’s people packed up his operation and vanished, they’d never have enough evidence to arrest the senator.
In the meantime, though, I have a crew that hates me.
Jenks peeled off from the group as soon as they cleared the threshold of the conference room and she spotted Luis. She stepped into his embrace without the slightest hesitation and the ache in Nika’s chest grew.
“I take it that whatever’s had you acting strangely has to do with Intel,” D’Arcy murmured.
Nika closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing back the curse that tried to slip free. “I really need people to stop sneaking up on me.”
“I hear Trappist is good for relaxing, at least the tourist spots.”
“You’re very calm about this.”
“No, I’m pissed. My ship got trashed. There better be an exceptionally good reason for it.”