Chosen of Chaos (Eve of Destruction Book 1)

by Benjamin Medrano

  Chapter 11

  It was more difficult to keep her temper under control after several hours, Evelyn admitted to herself. Moon and Star were nice, and had offered to make food for everyone else, which Evelyn readily accepted. While she was a decent cook, she wasn’t as good as someone who was going to college for that sort of thing. Besides, she usually scrounged around the kitchen to see what was available and made do with that rather than preparing something properly… and her idea of proper food tended to be simpler, too. In any case, it seemed that Star was training as an accountant, but had plenty of experience helping her sister with the cooking, and both seemed more cheerful at being able to help.

  The half-elf, Beatrice Fennel, proved to be a bit more interesting, as she’d indirectly taught Evelyn a few swear words when she’d regained consciousness. While thankful, the woman was bitter, as apparently she’d been the medic for a military organization and one of the other soldiers had decided to throw a coup. When she refused to go along with it, Beatrice had found herself knocked unconscious and shipped off to Rakal. She’d been rather vague on who she’d worked for, but Evelyn didn’t press, since she honestly didn’t care that much.

  After her had been the two elves. The blonde, Tianna Selth, had asked what Evelyn was doing with her data pad, sounding almost desperate, while the brunette, Peldri Callan, had asked if she could take a proper nap, and stolen one of the bay beds when given permission. Tianna eventually explained that she was a programmer who mostly worked on merchant terminals, but she’d been captured when a liner she’d been taking to her vacation had been boarded by pirates. Evelyn didn’t know how Peldri had been captured, but she made a note not to let Tianna meet the pirates the next day. She doubted the woman would do anything stupid, but you never knew with civilians.

  Then had come Dirax Xaldar, the dark elf. She’d introduced herself as a bulk merchant, and she had thanked Evelyn for freeing her. While Dirax hadn’t explained exactly how she’d ended up enslaved, the bits Evelyn caught indicated it was a partnership gone wrong, and Dirax was intending to use some of the funds Evelyn was giving them to send off a message and find out if she had any resources left before making a decision regarding her future. Then she’d gotten into an argument with Tianna about how sales should be performed, and Evelyn had been forced to put her foot down. She was honestly surprised that the two had backed down so readily, but wasn’t displeased.

  The only ones left at this point were the celestine, the aquana, the angel, and the succubus. The first had just come out of surgery, and the doctor was saving both the angel and demon for last, as he’d said he would.

  A minute later the celestine came tottering out from the bed where she’d been left, her face a bit pale, and she looked around the room for a moment. Evelyn did wonder why, aside from Moon and Star, all of them were still in the room. Oh, most of them had taken the time to shower and eat, but even the two humans had come back and lingered before going back to the galley so they could start on dinner.

  The celestine approached, and as she did, Evelyn’s eyes narrowed slightly. The woman’s steps were far more precise than most of the others, even if she was off-balance, and that combined with her excessively clear skin and long, beautiful hair gave Evelyn some idea of who she might be. Well, not who, but what aside from one of the less common species in the known galaxy.

  “Thank you for everything you have done, Evelyn Tarth,” the woman said, bowing deeply at the waist, which almost caused her to fall into Evelyn’s lap. Evelyn sighed, reaching out to catch her shoulder, and the woman’s cheeks colored as she steadied and straightened. “Ah… that was a mistake. But thank you. I’m Ilyra Samtreth the third, and if I’d been forced to remain in that state for even a few more days, I might have gone mad. I cannot express how thankful I am.”

  The statement caused Evelyn to sigh, and she reached up, rubbing her forehead as some of the others stopped what they were doing to pay attention. She’d known that this would cause problems.

  “Yes, you’re thankful, and you’re welcome. Now, from that statement I take it that you’re a noblewoman?” Evelyn asked, quirking an eyebrow, and when Ilyra’s cheeks colored and she nodded, Evelyn raised her gaze to the ceiling as she continued. “So, how much trouble am I going to be in for rescuing you?”

  “What? Why would you get in trouble?” Tianna asked, her eyes widening.

  “I… am not certain?” Ilyra replied to Evelyn, her cheeks brightening still more. “I’d cloned the identity of one of my maids to get aboard the liner, so I’m not sure what happened, not officially.”

  Evelyn considered her for a moment, a hint more annoyance welling up inside of her, but she forced herself to relax as she sighed, looking at Tianna as she explained. “There’s only one celestine colony in the cluster, Brightdawn, and unless Ilyra is from farther afield like the twins, she’s almost certainly from there. Unfortunately, Brightdawn has quite particular laws regarding their nobility. None of them are allowed off-planet, and they tend to regard anyone who has their nobility in the same way as kidnappers or terrorists. If I tried to give Ilyra back, they’d likely try to kill me.”

  Evelyn deliberately didn’t put any emphasis on the word try. While they might succeed, particularly if she was aboard a ship they could blast to pieces, Brightdawn didn’t have an enormous navy to begin with.

  “Oh. That’s… a little excessive, isn’t it?” Tianna asked, her eyes wide.

  “It has something to do with their focus on pure bloodlines and the line of succession… I don’t remember all of it,” Dirax chimed in coolly. “Regardless, she could cause all sorts of problems for us. I’m surprised the slavers even took her.”

  “I don’t know about that. I was running away from home, after all,” Ilyra replied, her blush brightening. “I’d intended to join an academy on Nald, but that does not seem possible at this point. I do not have the funds, even with the amount you spoke of gifting us, Miss Tarth.”

  “Call me Evelyn,” Evelyn told the celestine, a touch exasperated, and she did a search on the local network, which brought her up short. She frowned, then murmured softly. “Ah. You’re officially listed as dead. Apparently, whoever grabbed you ensured you were listed as being aboard the liner when it left Nald… and then it had the misfortune of encountering a kingfisher.”

  Everyone in the room, except the angel and succubus, paled suddenly, and Ilyra swayed halfway into the chair, then practically fell into it, causing a soft thump as she did so. Understandably, as encountering a kingfisher was incredibly unlucky. The kraken-like creatures were a nasty predator of the astral, and non-military ships rarely had the weaponry to fight them off, and usually had to run. In this case, the wreckage had been found weeks later, and the reports she saw didn’t explain how it’d happened. In fact, most of the local comments on the ship were how it was a shame they hadn’t gotten to loot it first, or stolen the ship.

  “That… that’s terrible,” Ilyra said, her eyes huge. “I… I know I would’ve been off the ship, but still… all those people. The crew seemed nice. They didn’t deserve that.”

  “Well, someone deserved it, given what happened to you. Unfortunately for all of us, they likely left at the same time as you,” Evelyn replied calmly, dismissing the search results. “Regardless, you’ll have to decide what you want to do.”

  Ilyra nodded, seemingly numb, but remained silent. That being the case, Evelyn fired up her data pad, intending to get some work done. Unfortunately, she hadn’t counted on Tianna promptly coming over to talk to her.

  Chapter 12

  The aquana was named Orm, and she profusely thanked Evelyn for her assistance, bowing deeply and invoking ‘the blessing of pure waters’ on Evelyn multiple times, which confused Evelyn, but she didn’t let it show. The woman claimed to have been an explorer from the next cluster who’d been searching for suitably aquatic worlds for a new colony when she ran afoul of pirates, which Evelyn thought was understandable. No matter how fast your ship was, if pi
rates managed to wait until you were in the right position, you weren’t going to get away without a fight.

  Peldri finally got up and explained shortly that she’d taken a job to renovate a home, as she was an interior designer, and had taken the wrong shortcut. A group of thugs had knocked her out, and the next thing she remembered was waking up in a slaver hold, though she was one of the lucky ones who’d gotten a private cell. Evelyn was dubious that she thought she’d been that lucky, based on Peldri’s expression.

  Finally, the last two had come out. Vaneryth, the angel, had thanked Evelyn politely, bowing deeply just before asking permission to kill the succubus. Evelyn was a touch amused, especially when the angel explained that she’d been in the middle of attempting to kill the other woman when the slavers had ambushed and captured both of them, then they’d been sold as a matched set. Vaneryth hadn’t been amused, and her displeasure deepened when Evelyn told her no.

  Zelirana, on the other hand, recovered the most quickly of all the victims, and the succubus had given an incredibly sweet smile to Vaneryth before bowing deeply to Evelyn and expressing her deep pleasure for the chance to meet her. The look on her face was almost predatory, though it’d faded at the even look Evelyn gave in response. Instead, Evelyn had asked her to go wait in a conference room with the others, which allowed her to pay Doctor Inda in private, as well to speak with him.

  “They’re all in fine physical condition. Unsurprising, really, and in my scan, I noticed that each has contraceptive implants. Those are standard most places, but I thought it worth mentioning,” Doctor Inda explained, frowning slightly. “The more interesting aspect is their cerebral implants. They all have tier four implants except for the celestine, angel, and demon, who had tier five, but if I’m not mistaken, only the celestine and half-elf possessed their implants before they were captured.”

  “Oh?” Evelyn asked, raising an eyebrow curiously. “Why do you say that?”

  Doctor Inda looked at the surgery room, where his assistants were cleaning up, then turned back to her, smiling slightly. “It’s easy to tell when you’ve been at this for as long as I have. There were signs that old implants had been broken down and new ones had formed in their place in most of them, and even the two who had their own implants had them modified. The angel and demon didn’t appear to have them at all beforehand. Their control chips were integrated into the implants and were trickier to remove.”

  “Mm… I’ll trust you on that. I assume that there’s a particular reason for the tiers?” Evelyn asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. She had tier six implants herself, which had been difficult to find, and she’d heard of tier seven and a rumored tier eight as well.

  “Yes. At least tier two is required for a control chip to function properly,” Inda said, his expression grim now. “Tier three is required for a lot of training programs, but four or above is necessary for ones that imprint the knowledge directly into the users mind. Five is more efficient, but much more expensive. As in, a single set is worth at least as much as you paid me. I’m guessing that’s why those three had the sets they do, and explains the rest of them, really. I’ve been on Rakal for a couple of decades, and those girls… if you’d brought them through town, no matter who you are, someone would’ve tried to nab one of them. I don’t want to think about how much any of them would’ve cost to purchase, let alone the entire group. You’ve likely made a powerful enemy.”

  “Ah. Well, if they decide to come after me, I’m afraid they’re going to have to stand in line,” Evelyn said, a ghost of a smile crossing her lips as she looked at him, and a brief moment of anger welled up inside her, which she quickly controlled. She did not like the implications of what he’d said, but it wasn’t her problem. Not directly, anyway. She’d done what she could, and the rest… that was up to them. With that thought, she cleared her mind, taking a breath, then nodded. “Thank you for your work. I do hope you have a safe trip back to your office.”

  “Thank you for giving me a chance to do something better than just installing some bio- or cyberware,” Inda replied, offering his hand, which Evelyn shook.

  She waited for the technicians to finish cleaning up, then escorted them off the ship. Only when that was done did she head for the conference room. She fully expected Fya to be there when she reached it, since she hadn’t seen the djinn for the entire day.

  “…nah, we’ve been here long enough that most people know not to mess with Milady. If they do, they’re going to lose a limb or their head,” Fya was saying as the door slid open, the djinn sitting on the table, while all but the angel were in chairs. There were a few empty seats near Zelirana, no one seemed to be comfortable around the succubus yet, and the angel was on the opposite side of the room, watching her warily. “Oh, there you are! What took so long?”

  “I was escorting Doctor Inda and his assistants off the ship. Please sweep the medbay for any devices they might have left behind later,” Evelyn said calmly, circling the table and taking the seat at the head of the table next to Zelirana. She looked down the table, studying the ex-slaves for a moment. “Now, the first stage of your freedom has been completed. I do not recommend leaving until at least after the second, but if you wish to walk straight into the arms of slavery once more, I will not stop you. I also will not save you again.”

  No one said anything for a moment. In the end, it was Moon who spoke first. “Um, what do you mean by first stage?”

  “The first stage is making it so you can act according to your own will. That required removing the control chip,” Evelyn said, ticking off the points on her fingers. “The second stage is allowing you to use your implants and to keep others from accessing them without your will. According to Doctor Inda, it is extremely likely that your implants have been programming your unconscious to some extent. The day after tomorrow I have a hacker arriving to break the encryption and to fix your implants. We will see how long that takes. At that point I leave what you do up to you. I do not believe that debarking here is wise, but it is your choice.”

  Most of the women around the table flinched at the mention of programming. Evelyn took note that Zelirana, Dirax, and Beatrice didn’t really react, which she found interesting. The succubus didn’t surprise her, but the other two… it was an interesting thing to note.

  “It’s a really bad choice, but I know some people are really into kinky stuff like being slaves or servants,” Fya chimed in, nodding quickly. “If you aren’t interested in that, though? Don’t do it. If you’re lucky, you’ll end up in a brothel.”

  “What other choice is there?” Orm asked, toying with the collar of her outfit restlessly.

  “I am going to give each of you a thousand mythrite, which is easily enough to get you to the core worlds if you so choose, or to send messages. In approximately a week, I intend to leave Rakal and head to Nald to gather information. I expect to be there for at least three days, possibly as much as a week,” Evelyn said, activating the holographic projector in the middle of the table to pull up the star charts. “There is a wyrmgate orbiting Nald and there are a great many ships that stop there, so you would be able to charter passage easily. I consider this to be stage three. A thousand mythrite could even allow you to get a start there or on another planet. It’s enough to live on for a year if you’re frugal and choose somewhere inexpensive.”

  “Or… you could join her harem and stay on as crew,” Fya suggested, grinning, and Evelyn pointed at her, practically glaring daggers.

  “I did not offer that, so don’t even start,” Evelyn said, glowering at the djinn. “As for crew, they’d have to show that they have skills or are willing to learn them.”

  “Skills, sure, but you already gave permission for the harem. You promised,” Fya retorted, folding her arms in front of her chest. “I don’t ask for much, but I’m asking for this.”

  For a moment they just glared at each other, Evelyn’s steel against Fya’s iron. Then Tianna broke the tension with a giggle. That opened the flood gates, as t
he others almost all broke out laughing. The only one who didn’t was Peldri, but even she smiled before she regained her composure and scowled even harder.

  Evelyn took a slow breath, trying desperately not to smile as well. She managed it, but it was surprisingly hard. Eventually she realized she wasn’t winning the argument, and she looked at the ceiling as she spoke. “Fine, you’re right, I did say you could. I did not promise, but I’ll concede the point this time. If they really want to, they can stay aboard that way, or if they can show they have reasonable skills for being part of a crew.”

  “Tempting…” Zelirana murmured in a sing-song tone, prompting a glower from the angel.

  “May I ask where you intend to go after Nald?” Dirax asked.

  “I don’t know for certain. That’s why I’ll be staying there for a short time,” Evelyn replied, glancing at the map irritably. “While I can get a great deal of information here, for some reason many information brokers don’t maintain official FTL nodes here, so I can’t get a lot of things I would like. In particular, I intend to sell or trade this ship in to purchase a better one, unless I find a world I want to live on more. While serviceable, this ship doesn’t have the layout, equipment, or… you know, let me take it back. The only thing the Daggerhound is good for is reminding me that I need a better ship. It’s better than a freighter or passenger liner, but that’s about it.”

  “Isn’t this a military ship? I thought it was, based on what I saw,” Beatrice said, frowning.

  “The Daggerhound is a Damaris Yards multi-purpose destroyer. It is built to allow it to fulfil multiple roles, but the primary role is as a fast-moving troop transport that can assist in raids. As such, it isn’t able to carry as much as a dedicated transport, it isn’t as fast as a scout, and it doesn’t have the weapons to stand up to more than a frigate. Its only advantage is that it has more weaponry than a civilian ship, so it might be able to scare off a kingfisher or pirate,” Evelyn replied evenly, folding her arms in front of her. “If I’m going to take up spacefaring, I want a proper light or heavy cruiser at a minimum, and not a mundane hulk like this. Enchantments can be the difference between life and death, and the only three parts of this ship with those are the emergency power plant, the astral drive, and life support. I’ll trust it for a few weeks, but long-term? Never.”