The Darri Commission: A Sci-Fi Dystopian Adventure (Dominion Rising Book 3)

by Katherine Bogle

  With her hands back in front of her, she patted her boot so they knew what she meant. Flik’s eyes sparkled with understanding.

  “Me too,” Steven called from the other side.

  “Same,” Jared said. “We stowed knives in our boots too.”

  “Damn I’m glad those guys are idiots.” She flashed a toothy grin, and got a chuckle out of Sav and Darius, though the others only smiled grimly.

  “We could try and use them to pry open the doors,” Steven suggested.

  He went to the door, inspecting the lock, and she did the same, but the door was smooth on her side of it. There was hardly a raised edge for her to get her knife between.

  The outer door whooshed open, and Selene jumped back, her heart racing.

  Pate stood in the entry, two soldiers at his back, and a malicious smile on his face. “Oh good, you have your own cell.” He chuckled as he stepped inside, coming right up to her door.

  Anyone who sat in their cells were now standing as if they all faced down Pate with her.

  “What do you want now, Pate?” Selene snapped.

  Pate chuckled once more, and shook his head. “Oh you’ll see, kitten.”

  She bristled at the pet name, and took another tentative step back without realizing what she was doing.

  Pate didn’t miss a thing, and smiled at her obvious fear. He jerked his chin forward, and stepped aside to let the soldiers’ in. “Take her,” he said.

  “What?” Selene balked as the door slid open, and two soldiers crowded her inside.

  Selene moved back against the wall, bracing to lash out. This was her chance at escape, and she knew it. She brought her hands up, curling her fingers into fists as she readied for a fight.

  “Tsk, tsk.” Pate shook his head. “Behave, or I won’t just do something nasty to you.” He pulled out his pistol, tapping it against his temple before motioning with it at her friends.

  Her heart lurched. “You’re threatening my friends now?”

  Pate shrugged. “Of course.”

  Selene lowered her hands, and the soldiers took that as a sign of her complacency, grabbing her arms, and forcing her through the door.

  “Selene!” Rikkard said. “Fight back!”

  “Don’t worry about us!” Rem squeaked.

  “Save yourself!” Flik ordered.

  But Selene couldn’t risk them, not a single one of them. She couldn’t fight back and risk Pate’s wrath, not yet at least. She’d bide her time, and strike when she was certain she would win.

  Her heart pounded hard, and her palms slicked with sweat.

  “Selene!” Rikkard snapped. “Listen to us for once!”

  Selene shook her head, and didn’t even get the chance to glance back before she was forced through the doorway and back into the hall. The prison door shut with a click, and then Pate was smirking, and leading the way.

  Every step she contemplated forcing her guards away from her. She could push one into the wall, incapacitate the other, grab a gun, and shoot Pate in the back of the head before he could move.

  The harsh overhead lights shined off the sleek metal of Pate’s pistol. He held it with his hands behind his back, tapping it up and down as if to remind her of his threat.

  Whether he intended for that or not, Selene didn’t move a muscle against the soldiers. Fear wrapped her heart like ice, stilling her limbs until the guards had to force her movements. If she put up a fight and Pate saw it coming, she was sure he’d keep his promise. Not only would he hurt her friends but he’d kill them, probably right in front of her.

  Her breathing grew ragged as Pate paused at another door. It whooshed open, and the sterile smell of a doctor’s office overtook her. Selene wrinkled her nose as the soldiers forced her through the door and into a very white room, much like any lab she’d ever seen.

  At the center of the wide space, a metal table glinted under the harsh light emanating down from a medical spider. Though she’d seen similar tables like it before, curved so a person wouldn’t be ramrod straight when they sat down, she’d never seen one with a set of four metal cuffs to hold a person down.

  Selene dug in her heels as the soldiers pulled her closer to her death, because she was damn sure that’s what waited for her, and seeing the crazy look in Pate’s eyes, she knew it wouldn’t be quick and painless either.

  At the far end of the room, a large viewport was cut through the white. Clouds flew past as they ascended slowly into the sky until they were above the clouds, with clear night for miles.

  Her heartbeat sped as other Dominion cruisers rose from the fluffy white clouds heading skyward to orbit.

  She sucked in a breath. Her mouth was dry, her tongue like sand. This wasn’t good. There didn’t seem to be any way out of those cells, so that meant no one was coming for her. If she let them pin her to that table and cuff her, she was dead. Probably tortured and then dead. Though she’d never actually have to watch the end of the human race, or whatever other fresh hell awaited them courtesy of the Darri, she wasn’t ready to die like this, not with her friends still locked up in cells, and not with her planet at stake.

  “Come now,” Pate chastised. “Don’t put up such a fuss.”

  The soldiers had to lift her by the elbows, carrying her to the table. Selene hooked her feet around the bottom of it, not allowing them to force her up and onto it.

  “You don’t need to do this,” Selene said. Her voice was high and panicked, a fact that only seemed to make Pate happy.

  His grin grew until the skin around his eyes crinkled. “No need to fight it, kitten. I’m going to kill you regardless, for what you’ve done.”

  Fury lanced through her. “What I’ve done? You ruined my life. You sent me to be tortured and turned into some science experiment! You imprisoned me for weeks and stripped away every bit of dignity I had left!”

  Pate narrowed his eyes. “And you’re the reason Director Tine is dead.” He grabbed her face painfully in his hand. “I have no way to prove what a bunch of conniving liars the Dominion are now. You’ve ruined my last plan, and for that, you deserve whatever I see fit.” He motioned to the soldiers, and they lifted her up, pulling her foot out from under the table before twisting her and slamming her back down on the table.

  Cold metal pressed against her skin, chilling her even through her suit. Her breath rushed from her lungs, and she struggled desperately to get out of their grips.

  The ties on her wrists were cut away, and her hands forced apart. Selene’s muscles burned as she held them back, trying desperately to keep her arms away from the cuffs on the edge of the table.

  “You can’t do this!” she said, her entire body shaking with the effort to pull away from the cold metal.

  Pate chuckled, shook his head and faced the viewport, watching as the sky darkened the further they climbed toward space. “I can do whatever I want here. I’m in charge of this ship.”

  An elbow collided with her gut, and air exploded from her lungs. She curled in on herself for only a moment before she was thrust back against the table and her wrists were slammed inside the metal cuffs.

  Her ankles were next, yanked and strapped down.

  She’d just barely gotten her breath back when the soldiers stepped away. “She’s secured, boss,” one of them said.

  Selene groaned. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten to protect her midsection. In all of her desperation, she’d been too focused on keeping her wrists free to think about any other damage they could do.

  “Good,” Pate said. His shoes squeaked as he spun around and returned to the table. “You can go now.”

  The soldiers nodded and left, the door closing behind them.

  Pate smiled down at her, and her stomach sank. “It’s just you and me now, kitten.”

  Selene gulped. Her heart pounded in her ears so loudly she almost missed what he’d said. Just him and her, huh? It was the last thing she’d ever wanted, unless she had a knife to his throat. Instead, she was pinned to a table, a
scary-ass medical spider hovering alongside the villain of her nightmares.

  How the hell was she going to get herself out of this one?

  Selene cried out as pain sliced through her cheekbone. She winced, cringing as far away from the scalpel the medical spider held as she could. Her heart raced, pounding painfully in her chest and ears. She glared daggers at the long spindly arm intent on cutting up her face.

  Pate laughed and the spider paused. “As pleasant as this is, I think it’ll be far more fun with my own hands.”

  Selene looked away from the spider. On the far side of the table closest to her feet was a silver podium with a large holoscreen glowing on top. Pate typed in commands, and the spider retracted.

  She exhaled a relieved sigh, her pounding heart calming slightly until Pate stepped around the podium and plucked the knife from the spider’s hand. She groaned, realizing what he’d meant. It wasn’t as fun to play with his toys through a robot. He’d much rather play with them up close and personal.

  Damn him.

  Gritting her teeth, she steeled herself from shifting away at his approach. Pate’s grin only grew as he assessed her calm determination.

  “You’re pretty when you’re in pain, you know that?” He chuckled darkly, and Selene blanched. “Almost as pretty as when you’re afraid.”

  Then I must be damn gorgeous right now.

  She didn’t dare take her eyes off him, even as he passed in front of the viewport embedded in the wall, and stopped beside the metal table. “You’re sick,” she said.

  Pate shook his head. “Only when it comes to you, my dear. Something about you and the Icarus just… fascinates me.”

  Selene’s eyes widened slightly, getting her another chuckle. She couldn’t help wondering what the hell he’d done to the other Icarus. For a long time Ivy had been like his pet. When she was ahead of Selene, she seemed to be treated well. She was always glowing with strength and youth. But when Selene finally kicked up her game and started to win, overcoming Ivy’s attempts to kill her, Ivy had shown up with a collar around her neck and bruises marring her throat.

  She gulped. Selene had no doubt in her mind that Ivy knew all too well what little games Pate liked to play.

  “We’re really nothing special,” Selene said. Her usual snark didn’t back her words.

  “On the contrary,” Pate began as he trailed the tip of the scalpel down her cheek to her neck, not breaking the skin, just letting her know she was in danger. “You Icarus heal incredibly fast. I bet if I left you for a few hours I’d come back and that wound would be sealed.”

  Selene worked her jaw. “Haven’t you heard? I’m not an Icarus anymore.”

  Pate’s smile dropped. His perverted gaze roamed up and down her body until it landed back on her eyes. “So you killed Director Tine and didn’t even get your old body back? Pathetic.” Rage curled around his words as the realization hit him.

  Hot pain stabbed her arm suddenly and Selene gasped as he plunged the knife into her skin.

  “I should have known the body I saw was your real one.” He shook his head, withdrew his knife, and stabbed her again. Selene bit down hard on her lip, barely stifling her gasp this time. “This one is like a pale imitation.”

  Selene resisted the urge to roll her eyes. For all intents and purposes, this new clone of hers was as close to her old body as she’d ever get. Her hair was streaked with sun-kissed highlights again, her eyes were a startling green, even her skin was the same tawny color as before; unlike the clone he’d forced her into previously.

  “What? No comeback, kitten?” he purred, eyeing her like a tiger about to feast on its prey.

  “Fresh out.”

  Pate chuckled and withdrew the scalpel, earning himself another gasp of pain.

  Selene sucked in a steadying breath and closed her eyes. She couldn’t give in to Pate’s torture. It’d only get worse from there. She had to clear her mind and think, but it was a hard thing to do when pain speared her arm and her heart raced in her ears. She could hardly think let alone plan an escape.

  “What’s going on in that head of yours?” Pate drew the tip of the knife across her throat, making her freeze. “You still think you can get out of this, don’t you?”

  Selene opened her eyes, and met his amber gaze. “I hope you enjoyed your last day on Earth, because you’re never going to set foot on it again.”

  Pate’s eyebrows rose with amusement and surprise. “There’s my spitfire.”

  “Bite me,” she growled.

  Pate pushed the scalpel into the skin above her collarbone, and Selene bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself still. Pain sliced through her chest as he continued down to the top of her suit, slicing through it and her skin as he continued down her sternum.

  Her eyes watered and she couldn’t hold his gaze anymore. Her fists balled as she looked up at the ceiling, praying to whatever might be listening that a bolt of lightning, or an act of God would give her a way out of there.

  The tip of the knife withdrew, and Pate smiled as he inspected his work. Hot blood pooled around the wound, chilling her skin as a cold blast of air hit it.

  She blinked back the water in her eyes, and turned her head to focus on something—anything but the pain.

  The dark of the atmosphere beyond the lab window had dissipated to the brilliance of space. The curve of the Earth was barely discernable, the ship was still so close, but it almost glowed, the atmosphere lit by the distant sun.

  Her breath caught in her throat as she spied the moon, like a silver beacon floating in a speckled black vacuum.

  Dominion ships rose from the atmosphere, joining their ship in space. Maybe a couple miles from the moon, a light blinked, like the twinkle of a star, but red like fire. A laser beam lanced through the void, and struck the edge of the moon.

  Selene sucked in a breath as pain sliced her skin once more, but she couldn’t look away from the devastation. Massive bits of rock the size of skyscrapers flew in every direction, careening towards Earth—and their ship.

  Holy shit. The Darri had just struck the damn moon.

  Another stab forced her back to the matter at hand, Pate carving a line down to her stomach.

  “This is far more fun when you watch,” he said, slicing deeper in order to keep her attention.

  Selene looked at the line of red traced from her chest, between her breasts, and approaching her navel. Her eyes welled with pained tears, and her heart seized. Maybe she wasn’t getting out of this one, but if the Darri had just blown up part of the moon, maybe it was for the best.

  She didn’t know a lot about science, but she knew enough to know Earth was fucked with the hail of debris raining down upon it.

  The ship shook suddenly and Pate leaned away, his bloody knife still in hand. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked up at the flickering lights overhead.

  Selene looked out the viewport to see rocks the size of, well her flying past. Another rumble shook the ship, and Pate let out an annoyed snarl. “What is it now?” He put the scalpel down in a metal dish near her knees.

  When the ship shook again, the lights died momentarily, leaving them in utter darkness. A soft click met her ears, and she had to bite back her gasp of surprise. Her cuffs were sealed with electro magnets. Without power, she was free.

  “What the hell is going on?” Pate’s clothes ruffled like he’d straightened and adjusted his jacket.

  Selene’s heart raced as she quietly pulled her wrists and ankles free and reached for her boot. Blinding light flashed back on, and Pate stared at her before his gaze shot down to where she was reaching.

  His eyes widened and he reached to slam her back onto the table, but Selene had already yanked the hilt of her serrated blade from her boot.

  “Stop!” Pate hissed.

  But after the last half an hour of Pate playing with her, there was no way in hell he was getting out of this alive. Selene yanked her arm back, avoiding his desperate hands, and slammed the tip of her blade direct
ly through his neck.

  His eyes widened with surprise, and his mouth dropped open. He staggered back, and Selene ripped her knife free. Blood sprayed across her face and chest. She’d hit the jugular. Good.

  Pate gripped his neck, trying desperately to staunch the bleeding. Selene didn’t hold back her smirk as she slipped off the table and stood over the man who had tortured her.

  “You’re pretty when you’re in pain,” Selene mimed his earlier words.

  Pate spluttered, trying to form a reply, but he was bleeding far too quickly. He collapsed onto his back, trying to hold his blood inside, even as it poured through his fingers.

  Selene wiped her blood-drenched blade on her thigh before straightening. When she looked back at Pate, he was motionless, his eyes glassy as he stared at the ceiling unseeing. Pate was dead.

  Her shoulders slumped and her breath fled her lungs. She’d never felt so relieved in her life.

  Another rumble and flicker of lights brought her back to reality. Right. The moon was struck, Aldar only knew how badly, and the ship she was presently on was probably trying to avoid the fallout.

  While they were distracted, Selene knew what she had to do. It was time to release her friends and take over this damn ship.

  Selene’s fingers tightened on her knife as she stepped over Pate’s dead body and headed for the door. She paused just long enough to hear a pair of soldiers run by, shouting orders about getting to their stations. Once the pound of their boots on metal faded, Selene opened the door.

  The hall was cast in red light, giving it a horror movie feel. She stepped out; heading back the way Pate had dragged her.

  Her breathing quickened as she strained her ears to listen for anyone approaching. Then she rounded a corner, and froze. Two black-clad soldiers stood outside the cellblock her friends were trapped inside. They shook from head to toe, probably having no idea what was going on.

  Selene didn’t hesitate a moment longer. Pushing herself into a sprint, she raced down the hall, clenching her teeth through the pain, and launched herself at the first guard. The first man had barely turned his head before she sliced his throat.