Nait scoffed. “Come on, Senator, I’m not that dumb. Have a little faith in me.”
The woman, apparently Natalia Valie, gave a soft smile. “Nice to see your personality survived, too.”
Sora cleared his throat, stepping forward. “Captain Sora Trok of the Killer, ma’am. These are my friends: Fi Kal, Talek Dano and Dr. Viktor Atkins,” he said, motioning to each one of them. They also stepped forward and Sora noticed Naos raising an eyebrow. His hand drifted toward that holster.
Natalia nodded, biting her lip. She looked at Nait again. “We should get inside.”
Naos whirled around. “Senator, are you sure about this? I mean, Nait, yeah, but…”
“It’s less suspicious than leaving them waiting out here,” Natalia said, gesturing to the wide field beyond the cabin. She stepped aside. “Come in.”
Nait walked in first. Sora, Talek, Fi and Viktor followed. Naos remained in the doorway and Sora thought he saw him puff out his chest slightly as each of them walked in. Sora also noticed Fi glaring at the new teenager. Once all of them stepped inside, Naos shut the door and locked it.
Sora gazed at the comfortable living room. Wood covered the walls and the floors. Two plush, cotton couches sat on a rug in the middle of the living room. A round, wooden table sat on the other side of the room. The cabin did not have a lot of space, but it did feel warm and cozy. Not many places like this anymore.
Natalia took a breath as she looked at Nait’s new companions, but she pointed to the couches. “Please, sit down. We have a lot to discuss.”
6
Scout held tight to the armrests of the wooden chair as she gazed at the room. Marble walls surrounded her but nothing much sat between them. This whole “capital” building seemed deserted and rundown. Trash and broken computers filled other rooms Scout had passed when they escorted her inside. This hub of the building seemed to be the only functional room left. A light bulb hung in the center but it flickered every few minutes. A large, stone chair sat at the front of the room.
It resembled a throne.
Felicia sharpened her black fingernails from the oversized seat, staring at Scout. Scout didn’t like it or her. She gave her the creeps.
“You insisted we come back here,” Scout said, grimacing at the empty room. “What do you want?”
Felicia tilted her head, eyeing the fingernail of her left index finger. A few more seconds passed before she spoke. “Tell me, child, what is your real name? ‘Scout’ is a nickname.”
Figured she’d ignore that question.
Scout could play this game, too. “How did you get control of this place? Puntan used to be under government jurisdiction.”
Felicia sat her elbows on both arms of her stone throne. She looked to the ceiling. “Through unfortunate circumstances. Puntan has never needed much control, but then its representative was killed in the Queen’s takeover. The planet still needed some form of order, so I provided it.”
It didn’t surprise Scout that Bettina hung a small-time planet out to dry. “You’re quite a savior, Miss Malone.”
She hoped the sarcasm came off strong.
Felicia took her eyes off of the ceiling and locked onto Scout again. She folded her dark, slender hands together. “You know, Scout, Sora and his ragtag crew have no reason to go after Queen Bettina on their own,” she said. She pointed a finger at Scout while keeping her hands perfectly folded. “I think you must be after her.”
Scout resisted the urge to scowl or shift in her seat. She didn’t want to give this woman that reaction. “Why does that matter to you?”
“I used to run a spice trade. The most profitable in the nebula,” Felicia said. She tapped her two index fingers against each other. “Until the Queen hired that assassin to destroy it and kill me.”
Scout allowed her shoulders to slump. She knew that Bettina forbade trading spice from non-government sources, but she didn’t know about the assassin. Assassinating someone was equally illegal. “She did?”
Felicia smirked. “I asked Sora to stop him, but you know how that went. I barely escaped with my life and soon after I do I hear that Sora Trok is now the captain of some freighter. The Killer? It is really the Jewel’s Eye.”
Scout still didn’t want to engage with her. She couldn’t let herself. “You did have his dad killed and you were a drug lord. Not much sympathy here, Miss Malone.”
Felicia stood, nodding. She stepped toward Scout. “You are an intelligent girl. Think of the bigger picture: I run my trade for years with no issues from Bettina, but one day she wants me dead? Then she kills Parliament? She is consolidating power and making herself untouchable.”
Scout pressed her back against the wood. She couldn’t talk about this.
Felicia continued her approach, ending directly in front of Scout. Her shadow encompassed Scout’s body as Felicia towered over her. “She must have done something to you, did she not? Why would a young girl be after the ruler of the nebula?”
Scout looked away. Sirens wailed in her ears. Soldiers’ marching echoed throughout the halls of the palace. She could hear Bettina removing her sword.
“Kill the children.”
Scout wondered how she looked to Bettina on that day. The pleading in her eyes. The hurt in her tears. Bettina shrugged it all off as she told her soldiers to hunt Scout and her brother down like animals.
Bettina had promised her a special treat after the training session that day. A reward for Scout’s performance in chasing down an intruder the day before. Bettina delivered when the session came. Scout ran out of the practice room of the palace and didn’t stop running until she fell off the ledge on Con.
She ran from her teacher, her mentor. The only adult she ever trusted and loved.
Scout felt a tickle across her cheek and came back to the present. She wanted to stop replaying those images day after day. She still didn’t look at Felicia, blinking the tears away.
“You can trust me, darling,” Felicia said, running her hand up Scout’s cheek and flicking a small tear away. “I want revenge, just like you. That woman ruined me and she will pay.”
Scout scowled, pulling away from the crime lord. She still didn’t turn her face as she felt her eyes dry. “It’s different.”
Felicia grabbed Scout’s china and Scout raised her fist. Scout expected a yank but held back her punch as Felicia slowly turned her face toward her own. “Sora Trok can’t help you. He’s unreliable. He couldn’t stop one assassin.”
“I don’t want to talk about Sor—”
“I have power. I have vision. I have all the resources and contacts you would ever need but I need something more,” Felicia said. She gripped Scout’s chin and leaned a little closer. “I need an army and you have the strength to be that army. Together, you and I could destroy the Queen.”
Scout’s shoulders trembled. As she stared at the crime lord, it reminded her of Bettina. Not of the Bettina that wanted her dead, but the Bettina that had nurtured her. Gave her strict rules and orders but in an effort to train her. The Bettina that wanted Scout to lead her forces.
The Bettina that saw Scout’s worth.
“You have potential,” Felicia said. Her voice sounded like a purr.
“Tian,” Scout said, gulping. She felt water in her eyes again but tried to hold it back. “My real name. Bettina hated it. She said I would be her scout.”
“Her Majesty lacks taste. It is beautiful,” Felicia said, releasing Scout’s chin and standing straight. She still towered over her. “Tian.”
Scout cleared her throat, trying to sound firmer. “You really think you can stop her?”
“She tried to kill me once and she failed,” Felicia said. Her serious gaze didn’t waver. “I clawed my way back into the nebula. Friends died for me to get this far, but I don’t think I can stop her. We can.”
“How?”
“You obviously know her and she hurt you. We help each other get to her and you will see justice,” Felicia said, pointing at Scout. �
��Don’t let her get away with what she has done.”
Scout looked away again. She didn’t want to think about this anymore. The last three weeks felt like three years. She hated it. “I was training to be her right-hand woman. She tried to kill me in the takeover.”
She hated Bettina.
“You’re just a girl. You didn’t deserve this,” Felicia said. Scout turned back toward her again and she didn’t necessarily want to. Felicia’s words drew her. “Let me help you.”
Scout sniffed. She refused to let these tears fall, but she couldn’t stop dwelling on how much this freaking hurt. How much Bettina hurt her. “What would we do?”
Felicia raised her right index finger. “First? Ditch Sora.”
Scout jerked forward. She just agreed to join the guy and this woman killed his father. She didn’t trust Sora but she didn’t want to desert him, despite what she would have said two days ago. At least not for this crime lord.
Did she have to leave him behind, though? Is that what it would take to fight back against Bettina? She’d doubted his crew’s abilities since the start.
Felicia extended her hand. “Come. The time is now, Tian. That ship is mine, and if we’re going to stop the Queen, I want it back.”
Scout hesitated. She didn’t know what to do.
“Come,” Felicia said, moving her hand closer. “The opportunity to strike back against her is now. You deserve justice. You’re worth that.”
Scout grabbed her hand.
Talek leaned forward in the middle seat of the couch, folding his hands on the coffee table in front of him. He found the tranquility of this planet nice but off-putting. Talek remained calm but inside of himself he felt an itching to get out. An itching for action and chaos.
An itching he knew all too well. It had grown stronger since the first incident on Con but he still thought best not to focus on it. He needed to focus on the task at hand: getting these two refugees back to the ship before that woman took off with the Killer.
Talek took his hands off the coffee table, still trying to appease the sensation in his head and in his hands. Rarely did he get this unsettled. Why now?
He thought he knew why, but again, he’d rather not focus on it.
“I’m glad to see you, Nait. You all have made it out of so much,” Natalia said, sitting on the other couch. She looked down, mulling over the recap she had just taken in. “I appreciate you coming here for me, but I can’t help you.”
“What do you mean?” Nait said, sitting on the right arm of the couch that the crew occupied. “She’s out to kill you. You need to stay safe. Besides, you were high up in Parliament. If any one could help us find resources to fight back, it’s you.”
Natalia shook her head. “I can’t stop Bettina. I don’t think it’s possible.”
Naos nodded. Talek grunted at the boy’s indignation. He did not know how to hide his unhappiness at their presence. Scout wanted to come all this way for a tightly-wound teenager.
Sora rubbed his hands together, leaning forward beside Talek. He nodded toward Natalia. “What was your relationship with the Queen? You seem to know her personally.”
“I did. Out of all of Parliament, I was closest to Bettina. She was one of the closest friends I’d ever had,” Natalia said, sighing. She shook her head. “Because of that, I became a liability when she became mad with power. I’m lucky that I even survived the takeover. When I found Naos and we smuggled ourselves off-world, I knew we needed to count our blessings.”
“You want to spend the rest of your life in hiding?” Fi said. She sat to Talek’s left, sitting straight. “Seems more unfeasible than fighting back.”
“Like Natalia said, the Queen is mad with power!” Naos said, throwing his hands up. “We don’t know you people and you want us to risk our lives for a plan that doesn’t even exist? That’s ridiculous.”
Nait held a hand up. “Not just them, Naos. Me too and I get what you’re saying. It sounds crazy, but look, I don’t want to only run anymore. I already failed at that.”
“Then stay with us,” Naos said, pointing at himself and Natalia. “We can find another small planet. That sounds safer than this. I trust you, man, but think this through.”
Nait shook his head. “We have. Scout is going along with this. She wanted to come here for you,” he said, frowning. “She’ll want you to come back with us.”
Talek heard Naos gulp. His face drooped and he leaned back, letting his hands fall into his lap. His eyes darted away from Nait and the rest of the group.
“I couldn’t stop Bettina when the takeover happened. I never saw it coming,” Natalia said, sighing. “How am I supposed to stop her now?”
Sora folded his hands together, looking from Nait to Natalia. “Senator, I don’t know all the horrors you have seen and all that you have gone through in the last few weeks but, as a citizen of the nebula, I know what the Queen’s doing is wrong. Not just what she’s done to you, but what she’s doing to this galaxy. I’m just a spacer but, if we don’t do something, things will get worse.”
Indeed, Sora. Much worse.
Natalia’s eyes leveled with Sora’s. Talek looked back and forth between the two. “What would we even do?”
“You have more contacts than we do,” Sora said, calling back to Nait’s earlier suggestion. “We can figure out something. Scout and Nait escaped from Con, but Queen Bettina will come for them again, just like she will come for both of you.”
“You’re noble, Captain Trok, but this is a serious situation,” Natalia said. She shook her head. “I don’t want to uselessly fight.”
“Your best friend tried to kill you. The woman who raised these children tried to kill them,” Sora said, even nodding at Naos. “I know what it’s like to be betrayed by someone close to you. You all deserve justice, just like I did. You’re worth that.”
Natalia paused. Talek couldn’t read her facial expression, but he considered that typical of a politician. A slithering bunch, but this one seemed genuine. He had always found Bettina suspicious when he saw clips of her in the media, but he never paid her much mind. He knew that others held more power than her, even if those others remained unseen.
He rubbed his temples for a few seconds. He needed to return to this conversation.
“I joined Parliament to advocate for innocents. People like you, Nait, Scout and Jaskia,” Natalia said, looking at Naos. “I’m not doing that by sitting here. If she’ll turn on us, why would she spare any of her constituents? She’ll oppress and terrorize more people.”
“I get that, Senator, she is pure evil, but we don’t know most of these people,” Naos said, gesturing to the group on the couch. Talek smirked when he heard Fi growl. “This seems far-fetched.”
Nait nodded. “It is, Naos, but think about Scout. She’s been devastated by this. She needs you.”
Naos looked at the ground, not immediately responding. He inhaled a breath. “Yeah. I’ve missed her.”
Natalia stood, brushing off her legs. “Naos and I will gather our things. Then, take me to your ship, Captain. We need to leave before her forces arrive and I know where we can go next.”
Nait grinned while Sora smiled and stood. “It’s not far. Let’s go.”
The door lifted and the Killer sat exactly where Scout left it. She shuddered as she spotted Trika and Kossk sitting on the ramp while Felicia’s men stood several feet away. Scout didn’t know what she wanted to do or why she had even followed Felicia here. Felicia killed, lied and committed numerous crimes. Everything Scout stood against.
She understood her, though. More importantly, she had resources to fight the Queen. Scout could use that. Felicia had connections that Sora could never offer her.
It still didn’t make working with her right.
Felicia didn’t step forward, hovering at the edge of the landing pad. She tapped her fingers against a pistol on her belt. “If we are to take the ship, I must eliminate Sora’s goons. You must distract them.”
Sco
ut scowled. She didn’t mention any of that before. “I don’t want to deceive them.”
Scout hated how her emotions held this much power right now. They had come and gone since the takeover but today they stood as her sole motivator. None of this made sense.
“They seem to trust you and my men shouldn’t take them head on,” Felicia said, staring at Scout once again. Her gaze felt like a dagger. “You have to get their guards down.”
Scout glanced at Trika and Kossk. They hadn’t seen her yet. Both rescued Nait, even when Trika didn’t want to. “They’ve been good to me.”
“If you want to stop the Queen, necessary evils must be taken,” Felicia said. She clicked her tongue. “First rule of being on top.”
Sounded a lot like Bettina. Scout looked at the ship again. She should just punch this lady and run, but something kept her here. It seemed like the opportunity for revenge drew closer. Scout couldn’t reject that so quickly.
A cold hand touched her shoulder and Scout shivered. She craned her head back to see Felicia glaring at the Killer. “Go. For the greater good.”
The greater good, like killing Bettina. Right.
Scout walked through the entrance. She wondered if Felicia had stuck puppet strings on her. Step by step, she approached the Killer. Every second that passed, she swallowed. Hard.
Kossk noticed her first and nudged Trika. Scout spotted the concern on their faces from a distance. Trika stood, while Kossk didn’t move from his relaxed position.
“Scout? Something wrong?” Trika said, raising her voice and grabbing her rifle. She glanced at Felicia’s thugs.
“Uh, uh,” Scout said. She stammered. “No.”
“Keep your mind on guard, girl,” Kossk said, standing as well.
Scout couldn’t swallow anymore. Her mouth ran dry. She coughed.
“Scout!” another voice said. It sounded like a yell.
Survival, Dark Times Page 9