Rogue Mate, page 19
part #1 of Rogue Star Series
“That’s not your bed, silly,” Lynna cooed to Persephone who’d curled up in a ball on Lynna’s pillow.
“Sorry!” I quickly lifted Persephone into my arms. “She’s got it into her head that the entire Rogue Star belongs to her now.”
“It’s fine,” Lynna smiled. “As I said, I like cats.”
“I still have no idea how she survived on the station for as long as she did,” I marveled.
“I still can’t believe she survived the shockwave,” Lynna added.
“Don’t cats have nine lives?” I lifted Persephone so we were eye to eye. She wiggled in indignation.
“If that’s true, then Persephone is down at least two. Three, since she must have traveled via Flosh Drive to get to the station. A human can barely withstand that journey, let alone a cat.”
“I didn’t think I was going to live through it,” I recalled.
“You were unconscious for a full two days after your arrival,” Lynna said.
“I’m glad we don’t have to worry about that anymore.” I ran my palm down the length of Persephone’s back. She purred contently.
“Me too,” Lynna replied. “That was the worst part of the job for me. I dreaded opening the travel pods knowing that there was a good chance the person inside didn’t survive the journey.”
“How did you handle it?” I asked.
“I don’t think I did,” Lynna confessed. “I’ve sort of...blocked out that part of the job.”
“Whatever works,” I shrugged. All of us from Persephone Station had stuff we wanted to block out. If our lives were peachy and perfect, we wouldn’t have been on the station to begin with.
“Now we’ve got the Dominion to worry about though,” Lynna said.
“Do you really think they’re a threat?” I asked.
“You don’t?”
“I’m not sure.” I chewed on my bottom lip and tucked a strand of brown hair behind my ear. “After what happened on Dominion Outpost Nine, I definitely want to avoid them but I don’t fully understand why they’re after us.”
“We’re in their system illegally,” Lynna replied. “But from what Kalyn overheard about experiments, there’s more to it than that.”
“Do you think it’s true?” I bit my lip. “Not that I don’t believe her, but maybe she misheard something? The translators might have messed something up, you know?”
“I think the Dominion officials really didn’t want us to leave the Outpost,” Lynna said. “I don’t believe they had any intention of taking us home.”
“Me either,” I confessed. “Maris seems to think that everything that’s happened to us since the shockwave has been part of one huge conspiracy.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Lynna chuckled. “I’m sure she and Aryn stay up all night coming up with theories.”
“What do you think?” I asked. Persephone dozed off, trapping my arm under her body.
“Everything lined up too perfectly for it to be a coincidence,” Lynna replied. “The shockwave, the ship that attacked us, and everything that happened on the Outpost feels staged. However, no one can figure out why the Dominion would do something like that, especially the shockwave.”
“Maris is certain the Rogue Star didn’t cause it,” I said.
“I’d trust Maris on that,” Lynna nodded.
“But it doesn’t explain why anyone would do that to us on purpose,” I replied. “Why would a governing force of an interstellar system want to take down a tiny station in a system outside of their jurisdiction?”
“That’s what Dejar and Kalyn have been asking themselves since we left the Outpost.” Lynna fluffed her pillow, shaking loose all of the hair Persephone left behind. “There’s no sense in it.”
“I feel like we’re missing a giant piece of the puzzle,” I sighed.
“More like we have only three pieces of a three-hundred-piece puzzle,” Lynna replied.
“I can’t stop thinking about that dark ship that attacked us. It was so fast! It came out of nowhere. What if it’s trailing us right now? Would we even know?”
“We aren’t carrying anything valuable. No one has any reason to bother us,” Lynna soothed.
“Except for the fact that we’re fugitives,” I replied.
“That’s why we’re going to Katzul,” Lynna said. “No one there is going to care that we’re fugitives. I doubt anyone will find out now that the ship’s registration has been altered.”
“I just wish we knew more.” I ran my fingers through Persephone’s fur. “I think I could handle just about anything so long as I knew all the information.”
“Try not to let it stress you out,” Lynna advised.
“Everything about this is stressful,” I laughed. “But at least we didn’t die in the void of space. And, I always wanted to travel.”
“There you go,” Lynna beamed. “Now you have the chance to see things people only dreamed about back in the Terran System.”
“The Terran System wasn’t that great anyway,” I shrugged. “I was going to spend the rest of my life on Persephone Station anyway. Pretty much anything is better than that.”
Persephone, the cat, started kneading my arm with her paws. Her little claws rhythmically dug into my skin. It was uncomfortable, but I knew perfectly well if I tried to move Persephone now, she’d only dig her claws in deeper.
“You don’t think you would’ve returned to your family?” Lynna tilted her head to one side.
Many of the women stationed at Persephone were convicted of crimes and were there to serve their punishments. My case was slightly different.
“No.” I let the silence hang between us.
My family wasn’t something I liked to talk about. Thankfully, Lynna didn’t press the topic.
“Aavat is supposed to give everyone proper jobs tomorrow,” she said brightly. “Are you looking forward to that?”
“I like the idea of having regular work,” I nodded. “I know I’m not trained for much. I’ll probably receive a job similar to what I was doing on Persephone Station.”
“I could always take you under my wing as a medical apprentice,” Lynna offered.
I gave her my most sincere smile. “Thanks, but I don’t have the stomach for that.”
“Didn’t you once tell me you wanted to become a vet?” Lynna asked, puzzled.
“I did,” I replied. “To be honest, I don’t think I have the stomach for that either. I wish I was born a few decades ago when zoos were still a thing on Earth. Taking care of animals in a zoo is the best job I can imagine.”
“Maybe they have zoos somewhere in Dominion Space,” Lynna said.
“Maybe.” I stroked Persephone’s fur absentmindedly. “I don’t think they’d hire me since I’m an illegal species and all.”
“Good point,” Lynna laughed.
“Aside from the space whales we saw a few days ago, I haven’t seen any non-intelligent life forms,” I said thoughtfully. “What if every planetary lifeform in this system has evolved to be intelligent?”
“It’s possible,” Lynna allowed.
“At this point, I’d consider anything to be possible.” I picked up Persephone, disturbing her nap, to hold her in front of my face. “You and the space whales could be the only animals in Dominion Space. How cool is that?”
Her expression revealed to me that she did not, in fact, think it was cool. I set her back down on my lap. She threw me a rueful glare as she climbed out of my lap and went to lay on my pillow.
“She looks like she’s planning to kill you in your sleep,” Lynna chuckled.
“That’s accurate,” I shrugged. “That’s half the reason Maris didn’t like having a cat in the room.”
“Only half?” Lynna raised one brow.
“The other half was because Persephone thought Maris’ curls were the world’s best toy,” I laughed.
“Maris never did strike me as an animal lover,” Lynna giggled.
“I think she likes animals. Just not that one.” I pointed to Persephone. Persephone stretched forward to push her nose into the tip of my finger before ignoring me once more.
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Given: Star Breed Book One
Kara
It was all Juda’s fault.
I kicked him out of my bed three weeks ago for cheating on me, but apparently, he wasn’t done screwing me over.
I crouched low on the roof of the abandoned gambling den across the street from Sary’s “general store” and cursed the limp-dicked bastard all over again.
There wasn’t a lot of traffic at this time of day. Not that that meant much in Ghelfi; the thieves’ city never truly slept. There was no point in waiting for night, like in the old vids Mom used to watch over and over. Like all sealed cities on the surface of Neurea, lighting in Ghelfi varied throughout the day’s cycle, but never to a true night.
I saw real night, once. I stowed away on the back of a surface crawler that was heading to Lashell. I don’t know why, somehow I’d thought it would be better if I got out of Ghelfi, started over somewhere else.
The velvet sky, studded with stars, shone clean and cold. Perfect. Not like the barely organized chaos of the cities.
But halfway there, the crawler broke down, had to be towed back. I realized then that there was no way out. Not for me.
In the old vids, everything always turned out alright, something swooped in at the last minute to save the day.
That’s how you knew they were only lies.
So here I was, half-hidden among old wires and debris that had been kicked up to the top of the store years ago, long forgotten. Watching time slip away on the chrono, crossing my fingers to old gods I didn’t believe in.
“What’cha doing?”
I jumped, furious with myself.
Bani crouched next to me. His dark brown hair hung down in his face, but I could still see the twinkle in his eye. Snuck up on me and was proud of it, little bastard.
I socked him gently in the arm, just enough to let him know I cared.
“Everybody’s looking for you, Kara,” he said under his breath. He didn’t look at me but instead kept his eyes scanning across the street, trying to see what I was interested in. Smart kid.
I ran my hand through my own tangle of hair. It was past time to cut it, but things had been a little busy lately.
“How mad is Xavis?” I really didn’t want to know the answer.
Bani shrugged one bony shoulder. “He’s playing it down a little bit, but I think he’s pretty steamed. If you, of all people, don’t show up by the end of the tithe, he’s gonna lose a lot of face.”
A light crackled, the burnt smell of frying wires wafted by. But I wasn’t paying attention to the noise or to the stink of ozone that permeated the air of Ghelfi. If Xavis really was mad, I was in trouble.
I shoved the thought far to the back of my head. Nothing to do about it but keep moving.
A shuffling sound below surprised me, and I risked another glance over the ledge. A miner, wrapped in rags so filthy there was no telling the gender, half-staggered down the street. He, she, whatever, paused in front of Sary’s storefront, then stumbled inside.
Ice gripped my spine. Rings willing, he’d be quick. Claim whatever he came to trade, and get out. Not stay there, spinning stories of life in the Waste, screwing my timetable.
“Is that the job?” Bani’s wide eyes fixed me. “A snatch and grab on the miners after they bring in the dust?”
I rolled my eyes. “They’re just trying to get by, same as us.” Besides, credits were no good to me, not with so little time to clean them. But the antonium dust the miners brought in was untraceable. ‘Dust knows no provenance’ was the saying. I just needed to get enough of it.
Agonizing minutes passed until he left. I glanced at my chrono again. If she didn’t show up today, I didn’t have a backup plan. This was my backup plan. No more nets to catch my fall.
I closed my eyes to try to find the calm, cold center within that had kept me alive so far on the streets of Ghelfi, and waited. I didn’t need to see, didn’t need to check the time. I could only wait and listen.
Finally, the sound came. The sharp click of stiletto heels across the permasteel walkway. I opened my eyes and leaned forward ever so slightly to peer down the street.
There she was. Charro’s secret indulgence. Silver hair teased into a high fall down her back, her face paint marked her as one of Sary’s working girls. When I first found out about Charro’s extracurricular activities, I’d half thought of sending a note to Sary, stir up the nest a bit. Then I started thinking long term. That’d been almost two years ago.
Two years of planning and waiting brought to a crash by that bastard Juda. I should have gutted him like a fish instead of just kicking him out.
Bani glanced at her and then looked up at me, frowning.
“That’s your mark?” He risked another look but I pulled him back sharply by the collar of his jacket.
He glared at me, with all the scorn a preteen could manage. “I know her. She works the landing pad. Even if she did have the sort of money you’re going to need to get out of trouble with Xavis, she isn’t gonna be carrying it with her on a job.” His eyes narrowed. “So what are you really up to?”
I grinned. I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t pleased to have to use this job to get out of the hole Juda left me in, but it was pretty brilliant.
“Just keep your eye on the alley, kid, okay?”
I checked my chrono again, but I didn’t need to. I’d timed this pattern so often. Like clockwork, the shadows of Charro’s two goons came into focus on the tinted plex of the storefront. Just like every other time I’d watched, they paced back and forth, no doubt joking about their boss and his hobby.
“They’re supposed to be guarding the back room, but he always kicks them out when she visits.” I checked the time again, stupid habit. Couldn’t help it. “He might be there, but he’s more than a little distracted right now.”
I worked my way across the roof, down to the collection of rubble in the back alley that had let me gain my vantage point.
Bani followed me and I glared at him.
“Stay up here,” I snarled. “I don’t know how this is going to turn out.”
“Then you’ll need a second pair of hands.”
The kid had a point, but I’d be damned if I was going to let him have it.
“No, I need a second pair of eyes.” His shoulders sagged a little. But I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t follow me anyway.
“Besides, I don't know if I can trust you on this job.” His white face told me my words hit their mark. Hated to do it, but I didn’t want to be worried about him. I was in enough trouble as it was.
His face slid out of sight as I worked my way down the trash heap.
Even before I crossed the street, the bitter stench of the acid bombs I’d planted clawed at my throat. The air recirculators only worked intermittently in this neighborhood, and in the alley, the smell almost forced me to my knees.
That the miner walked by without flinching, I could understand. I’d heard too much time in an environmental suit would have you smelling nothing but rubber. But the silver-haired doxy must have been high on something to not notice something was wrong.
No time to linger in the alley. Microcams swept every ninety seconds, watching, waiting for anything out of the ordinary.
I dashed to the hiding space I’d carved out of the fallen wall that backed up to Sary’s, and held my breath, trying to hear over the drumming of my heartbeat. The rushing in my ears slowed, and I poked my head out. Still all clear.
Nobody in their right mind would take on Sary, he ran half the games in town, and word in the pits said he wanted to take control of the city over from Xavis. Unlikely, but still, not someone I really wanted after me. But if the choice was Sary or Xavis himself….well, it was a sucky choice.
I counted, waiting for the next clear moment to check on the results of the clustered acid bombs, then ran back around the corner.
Ninety seconds is a long time.
Ninety seconds is long enough to make one chip in the wall a day until a section can be lifted away and replaced seamlessly.
Ninety seconds is long enough to plant one small acid bomb at a time, then wait for a few days for the smell to dissipate, for the interior wall that led to the vault to weaken, bit by bit, day by day.
Ninety seconds is long enough to die in the Waste, outside of the protection of the domes.
And if I didn’t get my tithe to Xavis by tonight, that’s where I’d end up.
Davien
Really, everything would be so much easier if I just snapped the fat fool’s neck. Only the endless lessons in control back on the ship kept my hands still at my sides, fingers barely flexing. The tips of my claws ran across my palms, bringing me back to focus.
“Davien, are you even listening to me?” Xavis rumbled.
And he wasn’t a fool, even if I despised him. Xavis had clawed his way to the top of the dirtiest pile to run Ghelfi. The trip to the top had been over the broken bodies of plenty of enemies. He’d stayed on his perch for over twenty Imperial years. I didn’t have to do much research to know his methods hadn’t changed.
Prime example: he’d hired me.
I focused on Xavis, only too aware I’d started to slip away into the hunt. Every moment here, stuck on this rock, was a delay I couldn’t afford. Xavis, bastard though he might be, was my fastest way out of here. Well, the fastest way without an unacceptably high casualty count.
