by Skyler Grant
"Science and knowledge are the highest ideals and the greatest morality. The true crime in all this would be destroying what they learned with no effort to preserve it."
Kat rolled her eyes. "Right. I suppose it's a good thing my husband clearly has a thing for the wicked, crazy, and depraved."
"I miss the evil machine," Mara said wryly.
Quinn guessed old wife and new wives were done playing nice with each other. He could get in the middle of it, but he was afraid that might make it even worse.
17
Kat was busy incinerating another freezer full of priceless samples when the overhead speakers crackled.
"Several of the most wanted wander into my facility. I don't know how you got here, but you should know there is no way out. A shame you left the Queen of Thieves behind. Surrender and you may survive."
"Probably true, as lab animals," Kalisa said.
"Can I respond?" Quinn asked.
"Wall panel. Hope to give a few insults," Mara said.
Quinn found the comm. "This is Lord Tsaro, responding to the abduction of members of my family. Threaten me, and you take action against a great house."
"You are Captain Quinn Jade and no Tsaro."
"Confirm with the Lords Council. Confirm with Sekara," Quinn said.
"You got all high and mighty in a hurry," Kat said in disgust.
"I'm buying us time. Whoever is in charge of these troops, I'm betting they don't want to take responsibility for killing a head of house, however much I'm wanted," Quinn said.
"They'll have to escalate it up the chain. Any chain of command being what it is, this may happen a few times," Mara said.
"Do we have a way out of here? You can't teleport us back, right?" Kat asked after a third freezer had been incinerated.
"I can't. I can move us to an alternate universe, if the situation gets critical," Quinn said.
Unfortunately, that wasn't looking a great option so far. This was a Core world, a seat of Imperium power. In most universes that Quinn had scanned it was still a secure facility.
They might buy themselves some time by hopping universes, but they'd still be trespassers wherever they ended up.
"Hanger bay is four levels above us. No central lifts, different access points on each floor. They constructed their security well," Mara said.
Even if the Centauri Bliss got here he didn't see how the family could rescue them. It might be a different matter if they were airborne in a shuttle, but deep underground there was simply nothing they could do.
"Kat, stop," Quinn said. "Have the Tsaro samples been destroyed? Are there any left? How much?"
"You want to reverse engineer what they did," Kalisa said.
"Can we?"
"We don't have ship conduits, but a surface layer might have the same effect," Kalisa said, once more tapping furiously at the keys.
"A surface layer? You want to cover us in people slurry?" Kat asked. "Really, I die and this is what you start doing? This is your idea of a good time? We could be stoned out of our minds on a damned pleasure planet right now."
Kalisa glanced over at Mara. "Freezer five. L718 and L719."
"On it," Mara said, getting up and moving to the freezers. After thirty seconds she returned with two cylinders in hand.
Kalisa said to Kat, "You're up first, Miss resurrected and pissy. Defrosted, not boiled."
Kat rolled her eyes but made her way over, resting a hand on each cylinder. The metal glowed for a moment.
"I've still got nothing on how they feed it navigational data," Kalisa said.
"We use me. I've never tried to link with goo, but we're out of other options," Quinn said.
Kalisa got up from her seat and opened one of the cylinders, pulling out a handful of glop. It really was ugly-looking stuff, clearly organic, but also unidentifiable. With a skillful toss the blob hit Kat in the face.
"Rub yourself down with it. Be thorough and don't waste. We've a limited supply," Kalisa said, before grabbing another handful and beginning to smear her flesh with it.
"I am rubbing myself with people and trying to figure out what part of people it smells like," Kat said, grudgingly wiping herself with the muck.
"You going for the hangar bay or somewhere else?" Mara asked Quinn.
It was a good question. Quinn could think of a few teleportation options.
Quinn might try for the Centauri Bliss itself. Jinx and Tamara linked had once taken them to the Archive despite not having firm coordinates for it. Quinn knew his ship better than anything. Another option was the artifact that had brought them here. He maintained a link with it and that link could be followed back. Hope's Reach was another possibility. He knew the coordinates well enough he could plot those in his head. Of course, proximity was in theory simpler and the hangar was just above them.
Mara moved towards him with the second vial, and Quinn shook his head. "I'm already a Tsaro, I don't need the goop. Save it for yourself."
"Well, of course you're the only one who doesn't wind up gross in this plan of yours," Kat said with a grimace. "Sand is back. I'm letting her take over."
The transition was dramatic, the look of disgust fading and her posture taking on a far more regal air. "An interesting plan. I apologize that took some time. This facility was larger than expected."
"You neutralized it?" Quinn asked.
"Oh, the destruction out there is truly massive," Sand said, sounding rather satisfied with herself.
The door trembled as it took an impact from the other side. It seemed someone had finally been willing to give a kill order.
The others were thoroughly coated in people slop and Quinn had them form a circle with hands linked, his fingers filled with mana crystals that could make contact with their slippery hands.
Quinn tried to still his mind and reach out for the magic, and for the magic that the others were now coated in. Power, he could feel it thrumming through him.
Order magic felt so different from his Chaos magic. Quinn for a moment was perfectly aware where he was, and where the others were. Quinn wondered if this was how Jinx increasingly felt all the time now, absolutely certain, absolutely fixed.
It was the simplest thing in the world to pull in the mana and use it. Reality twisted around him and the others as they jumped.
18
Quinn could already feel in the first few moments of accessing the magic that most of the options were denied to him. The Centauri Bliss was possible, but dangerous. For some reason following the path back to the artifact wouldn't work at all. There was a skill to teleporting, and he simply didn't have it yet, and whatever method the Imperium was using to direct navigation, right now he simply couldn't do the same, not to the degree required.
They materialized a few levels above in the hangar bay of the base. There were rows of shuttles, mostly transports, although there were a few bigger and bulkier combat models.
There were also shocktroopers, disembarking from a particularly well-armored ship marked with magical runes.
The shocktroopers were covered head to toe in heavy combat armor, their features completely obscured. Unlike most Imperium armor theirs, like the transport shuttle, was marked with magical runes, as were the barrels of their rifles.
This hadn't improved their situation nearly as much as Quinn would have liked.
Kalisa saw them and was already moving at a run. They were no more able to hit Kalisa than most, her body weaving and twisting to avoid attacks as she plunged into their midst and began to attack with her knives. Her enchantments were stronger than those on their armor, but just barely. Her attacks were wounding, not killing.
The longer a fight went on and the more complex the variables got, the more Kalisa was likely to get hurt. Fortunately she wasn't alone, Sand quickly following her in. Sand wasn't going for kills, not in this fight, rather she aimed punches and kicks at the joints of the shocktroopers and where each hit layers of frost and ice formed upon their armor.
Quinn t
ried to think of how he could help. His energy pistols had some basic enchantment on the energy chambers, but that wouldn't be enough to do any serious damage to that armor, nor were his powers enough to breach them.
The combat shuttles. Quinn focused his attention on one near the shocktroopers and invoked his magic to teleport him into the cockpit.
Quinn hit his comm. "Keep them busy a few seconds longer then get clear. I'm powering up heavy weapons in a shuttle."
More shocktroopers had come down the ramp of the shuttle, a total melee now surrounding Kalisa and Sand. They were too close in for the shocktroopers to use their rifles, but mechanized armor could deliver a fearsome blow, especially delivered by enchanted gauntlets.
The combat ship was armed with light weaponry, plus it had a few torpedoes designed to damage a capital ship's systems.
At full power a missile would do far too much damage to the hangar, but at lowest yield Quinn thought they'd work just about right. It was a matter of overriding the safeties.
"Clear," Quinn shouted into his comm.
Sand and Kalia drove clear, Sand throwing up a barrier of ice between them and the shocktroopers. It lasted long enough for Quinn to fire the torpedo.
It hit in the middle of their mass and bodies went flying. Those at the point of direct impact were reduced to little more than fragments of enchanted metal. Those on the outskirts were just thrown clear, several bouncing off docked ships and sprawling to the ground.
Any normal soldiers would be dead, but some of those thrown clear were already starting to push themselves up.
Quinn teleported himself back to the others.
The ramp of the shocktroopers' ship appeared to be undamaged. The torpedo hadn't damaged the shuttle. Good.
"They came in on the heaviest ship in this hangar and their computers might have the current security codes. We're stealing it," Quinn said.
"Already on it. They had a pilot and copilot still aboard, they're neutralized," Mara said.
They made their way aboard the ship and sealed the hatch behind them. Quinn was heading for the cockpit as soon as they were aboard. The ship was dark and claustrophobic, weapon racks lining the main hold with a variety of weapons.
Outside the cockpit two bodies were dumped, not shocktroopers. Imperium officers with their throats slit.
Quinn settled down into the pilot's seat, Mara was sitting in the copilot position.
"Systems were on lockdown after landing, but I've already got us in. The system is on full alert," Mara said.
There were benefits to Imperium regulations. If you knew how to fly one Imperium ship, any others of a similar class would all have a similar enough layout you could understand the controls quickly. Quinn barely had to study them at all before he was powering up the engines and they were lifting.
Shocktroopers fired on them, enchanted rounds hitting enchanted armor. They weren't penetrating.
"We're not getting out quiet. They'll have called this in," Quinn said.
This ship had torpedoes as well. These Quinn amped up to full power as the shuttle headed towards the hangar exit As soon as they were clear he executed a quick turn, firing both torpedoes.
In a contained space like the hangar the explosion overwhelmed the armor of the lighter ships, and as soon as it did the fuel and ammo stores detonated, fueling the explosion.
"Thirty-seven incoming contacts," Mara said.
"Transferring coordinates to your station. Get word to the Centauri Bliss. Jump in at one minute after message acknowledgement," Quinn said.
Mara didn't even have to type for that, her implants allowing her interaction with the ship's systems. "Acknowledged."
Fighters were upon them. A defensive screen had been in place over the facility, likely preparing for a rescue attempt.
The heavily armored shuttle was slow, plodding compared to what he was used to. They took several hits, but in the process he destroyed two closing fighters.
Quinn fired up the engines, executing an evasive pattern as fighters followed. He was buying time, waiting as he watched.
There. Quinn killed the engines and the fighters overshot as he reversed course. Ahead of the shuttle there was a shimmer of energy and the Centauri Bliss appeared. The shields flickered as they were allowed through and he was engaging clamps to dock against their hull. As soon as there was a physical connection he signaled.
Space twisted. Quinn spent a near lifetime in Imperium Intelligence. A patriot, willing to do anything for the greater good. A rise through secret ranks, a life of conspiracies and lies.
Then reality was crashing back around him. Space above was clear, the familiar sight of the Hope's Reach colony below. They were home.
19
"Just like old times," Kat said.
Quinn had wanted some alone time with Kat, a chance to build upon some of their old intimacy. Maybe a chance to reach her, to try to find some of those good bits he remembered. Kat had accepted his invitation to spend some time in the bedroom, but she hadn't come alone.
"Been too long. You too have fun on your mission?" Ice asked, slipping in behind her.
Kat snapped her fingers and the dress she wore wasn't removed so much as dissolved, drifting away into silvery dust. The black leather underthings she wore would look more natural on Kalisa than her, Kat had never been one for leather.
"I got to burn people. I just gesture and the fire comes. I get shot and it just melts off. At first I had so many doubts about this ... thing in here with me. But you should have been there. I kick so much ass," Kat said breathlessly.
"Wish I had been," Ice said. Ice was dressed in her usual white leathers and as she talked she slipped her top off. Beneath she wore a white bra that could be the perfect contrast to Kat's.
"You don't have to sound so excited about that bit," Quinn said.
"Quinn, don't be a wet blanket. Take your damned clothes off and get in the bed. This is your idea," Kat said.
It was, even if it wasn't going as hoped or planned. Still, this was the first real intimacy Kat at all seemed inclined towards, and it was a door Quinn didn't want to shut.
Quinn stripped out of his clothing and got on the bed. He'd been married to Ice long enough now that he fully responded to her as one of his wives, and his arousal stirred as he stretched out.
"You've got more bite than you used to," Ice said, looking at Kat speculatively.
"You die, come back, and find this. I've a few anger issues. Doesn't it bug you? The pointless moralizing?"
Ice shrugged. "When I signed on, I did it as the bad guy because they needed one. I don't have to hold anything back. I don't have to hide anything."
Kat settled down into a seat, her legs stretching out before her. "I like that. Fuck him, I want to watch."
"Bossy," Ice said with a laugh. "I'm into it." Ice slipped out of her undergarments. No genetic modification to Ice, no magic. Just a pirate who had lived a hard life, her body toned and fit, and bearing countless scars of past violence.
"I was hoping we'd have some time," Quinn said to Kat.
"Quinn, you're hoping for a lot of things. You didn't ask me before bringing me back to life. You didn't ask me before marrying a dozen women. You didn't ask me before putting my corpse up on a pedestal for years," Kat said, growing increasingly bitter.
Ice moved forward and crawled up onto the bed. The tirade didn't seem to bother her at all as her body slid over Quinn's. A lingering kiss was pressed against his lips and then her ears brushed along his cheek.
"Whatever this is, she needs it. Listen for once," Ice said, before her hips positioned themselves over his and she lowered herself down upon him.
It was an effort, but Quinn didn't answer Kat. Perhaps Ice was right, perhaps she just needed to talk.
"I'm not in control of a single part of my life anymore. I'm not even in control of my body. This isn't even really my body. I'm the ghost of a woman raised from the dead because a machine had the hots for my husband," Kat said.
>
Quinn really wanted to respond now, wanted to say something, but it seemed increasingly likely that Ice was right. Kat needed to say this, needed to get this out of her system.
Ice began to roll her hips and Quinn found his gaze captured by the sight of her breasts swaying above him. Her calloused hands slid along his chest, nails digging small furrows.
Kat was saying, "But I do still love you. I love Ice. I love this stupid ship. Some of this new family are actually pretty cool." It sounded almost as if she were trying to convince herself. Still, however introspective the conversation, she was watching Quinn and Ice, her gaze alert.
"So what do you want, Kat? Tell him," Ice said, a little hoarse.
"When we're in the bedroom I'm in charge, absolutely. No sad puppy dog eyes or trying to remember me as the woman I was, or never was. I know it was never our thing, but I'm not her. Maybe I never was her," Kat said.
That really never had been her kink. Or his, really, although of late things had gotten a little blurry sometimes. Taki insisted on calling him 'sir', even in the bedroom, and while Tamara might not wear leather she clearly had her dominant side.
This was Kat though. It made everything different, but Quinn got the impression that this was really important. Kat felt out of control of her life, and maybe killing made her feel that she had a little bit of that back. Maybe this would too. Maybe that didn't even matter—she wanted it, and it was a turn-on however unexpected.
"Okay," Quinn said. It wasn't exactly an eloquent response, but then the timing wasn't a great one. Ice had hit a final frenzied movement of her hips and their mutual releases were washing over them. Quinn's body arched up against hers.
"I'm not playing bottom," Ice gasped.
"Of course not. What's yours is mine and mine is yours," Kat said. "We always shared everything. Life only got bad when we stopped. I want Ice back on the ship, I want us to be a family like we used to be."
Taki would hate that. The only reason Ice had been allowed to join the family at all was under the condition she stay off the ship. Still, she was a member of the Centauri and with their exit plans going into effect, it wouldn't be fair to leave her behind.