Star Chaser (Galactic Shield Book 2), page 21
I said nothing, betrayed nothing. I was just a cop. This was far above my pay grade. Someone needed to sign my overtime and hazardous duty pay request whenever I got around to submitting it.
He continued. “You are Morales’s inside man in the APOP. It doesn’t hurt that you’re popular with the go-getters and top tier agents. He needs someone fearless, and that’s you, 105.”
The guy had that last part all wrong. I was just better at hiding the terror boiling inside. Fearless? Hardly. “Are you asking me for something, or is this an opinion piece?” I looked at my wrist screen. “I really don’t have all day for a political science lecture.”
Bayle leaned in for the attack.
I signaled Regina and Cates to be ready. We needed to break out. It was almost time to leave in a hurry.
“Surrender Logan Vy to my custody. You don’t want to touch him or his business ventures. I’m doing you a favor on this one, trust me. His resources are already committed to a project that I will not see fail no matter his second thoughts or some idiot’s flawed profit and loss projection.” He paused. “Forward all information you learned from your meeting with Lord Havna. Deliver the Avian twins to my custody if you have them.”
“Is that all?” The chance of me giving up the twins was zero. “Normally you have to take someone to dinner before you screw them.”
“Don’t be crass, Lieutenant Wrath.”
“Escape vectors have been plotted,” Regina said in my ear. “Cates and Nova worked with me on this package. It will work.”
I tapped the acknowledgment button on my screen without looking at it.
“You don’t have a choice,” Bayle said. “Now or later, I will have what I want. There are star clusters beyond the Ultar sector. You don’t understand opportunities that await us. When was the last time a new region provided the raw materials to explore the next ten regions? The galaxy is opening to humanity. Now is our time.”
I gambled. “That’s great. How will our ships get there when our transit drives stop working?”
“You are walking a fine line, Lieutenant.”
“I always do.” I checked to make sure my ship and my crew were prepared for departure.
“You don’t know as much about the Ultar star drives as you think. I’m warning you, Breaker—”
Every icon showed green. “I'll be in touch.”
Cates supplied power to the engines, then raced away on a complicated series of rapidly changing vectors. By the time Bayle’s void fighters were in pursuit, the Soft Touch was leaving their effective range. This forced them to return to their launch platforms, and only then could Bayle’s starship begin pursuit.
“We’re going to pay for that,” Nova said.
“Totally worth it. He talks too much.” I remained on the bridge until we were clear, then summoned Cambridge and Nova into a private meeting.
24
“I can’t,” Cambridge said.
That wasn’t good enough. Nova agreed with me. I could see mistrust of the man on her face and in her crossed-arm posture.
He paced, stopped, and tried again. “Keeping Logan Vy from my father is possible, but it means finding someone more powerful than my father or your mentor to provide a long-term solution. I have spent two years auditing Vy’s accounts, which brought me to his money trail. I shouldn’t have informed my father, but I wanted to prove myself. Now it is up to me to make amends.”
I couldn’t help Cambridge. Not with this. He seemed like an all right guy for a child of privilege. At the end of the day, the man needed to stand on his own. No one could help him even though a failure on his part would have dire consequences for everyone—or that’s what my instincts warned.
“None of that matters,” he said. “There is only one option, and you can’t take it. Regardless of what you or my father or anyone else thinks, Logan Vy is the key to everything. Even without the secrets to the Ultar’s FTL technology, he could save us.”
“You’re gonna have to go deeper. Tell us everything.” I saw something in Cambridge. His true self was showing, and it hadn’t surrendered to corruption. “Why is Vy important, and why should I trust you? I can keep him safe better than you can.”
“Not if my father thinks you stole the Ultar tech from under his nose. He won’t stop until your ship has been torn apart and every member of your squad interrogated. He’ll stash you on separate planets and spend years breaking you down. You will want to answer his questions by the time it’s over.”
“You don’t know the lieutenant very well,” Nova said.
I moved closer. “Sounds like I should take what I have, who I have, and what I know and disappear into the void.”
This time, Cambridge watched, waited, and listened. He was learning.
“You’re a good man, Cambridge. Do the right thing.” I could have said more. Perfect words floated just out of reach. I let my statement stand rather than fumble through a long speech.
He nodded thoughtfully, then spoke in a low voice that grew stronger. “I will steal Logan Vy. You’ll try to stop me, but it will be too late. My ship will be on its way to the Bear sector with the intent to rendezvous with my father’s assets once I’ve slipped the infamous Breaker 105 and his crew.”
Nova’s expression darkened.
I held up one hand to forestall her response, then stared Cambridge down.
He continued. “Lucky me, I also managed to make off with the Avian twins and the Ultar discs. Anyone who knows what is at stake will pursue immediately.”
“But you won’t have any of that,” I said.
He shook his head and lowered his gaze. “I want to convince you I’m trustworthy, but there isn’t time. Maybe this will earn your respect in the future.”
“Your father and a lot of other people will be furious,” Nova observed.
Cambridge laughed nervously. “I will be out of a job and an inheritance. But you know what, I need this. How else will I be forced to stand on my own?”
“How close is your ship?” I asked.
Cissi burst into the room, tears streaming down her face. She shoved past Nova and started dragging at my arm. “They’re dying! He did something to them. I know he did.”
“Who’s dying? What are you talking about?” I grabbed her by the shoulders.
She pulled me toward the door, or tried to. “The twins. It’s poison. You have to come.”
Nova caught my attention. “I’ll handle this with Cambridge. Go.”
Cissi led the way until I rushed by her and arrived at the medical bay first. Lehman, Kyn, and Fathers worked frantically to stop the twins from seizing.
Fay spotted me and reached out. “Lieutenant, help us.”
I knelt beside her and took her hands in mine. “How? Tell me what to do.”
“We shouldn’t have left the planet. He warned us.” She twisted toward her brother, distracted by his cry of pain.
“Tell me about that,” I said, not wanting to ask leading questions, though I sensed she knew exactly what was wrong.
“Lord Havna said that if we left the planet, an engineered virus would kill us without the antidote. He promised to give it to us if we did what he wanted.” She gritted her sharp teeth against a full body tremor, then calmed slightly when her brother’s misery lessened.
“I don’t believe him,” Borm said. “Once we comply, he will throw us into the darkness.”
“Tell me details, Fay.” I glanced at my agents to make sure they were listening. All eyes were on the suffering Avians.
“Lord Havna wears a vial on a chain around his neck. It contains the antidote. He taunted us with it.” Taking action renewed her strength. “We are not weak and compliant. Do not judge us by our captivity.”
“I’ll be making the same request if this goes wrong.”
She regarded me as no one had ever dared. We were different versions of sentient life, but in that moment, I understood the details were inconsequential. “You are going to help us—really help us.”
“Yep.” A familiar mixture of excitement and dread filled my soul.
She smiled and it was the most amazing thing I’d experienced for a long time. “You have no concern for your own safety.”
“Pump the brakes, Fay. I am my favorite person. Keeping my broken-down old butt alive is job one in my book. How else can I drink coffee and watch my squad punish themselves with Yolo’s lasagna.”
“You don’t believe that. There is someone you would die for to grant them one extra hour of life. Tell me I am wrong.”
I thought of Katrina Snow, Saint, Boomer, Kalchev, and everyone in my squad. “Don’t give me too much credit. Tell me as much as you can about this vial and how I can take it from Havna.”
There wasn’t time for a leisurely walk around the Soft Touch, but I did a few laps to clear my head. Rushing to failure was never a good idea. Once I was balanced, focused, and committed, nothing could stop me. Fathers, Woods, Omar, and Lehman unpacked Breaker 105 and inventoried the crates of parts and accessories that came with it. They were under strict orders not to put anything together or play with things that could kill them and everyone on the ship.
Saint’s claims about the Ultar and their advanced FTL disturbed my thoughts. I needed to remember, but not allow dread to cloud my judgment or leech my motivation. Something about the revelation and what it had done to my friend filled me with hopelessness. No wonder he’d surrendered to his meanest vices. This void trash was stressful.
Transit technology had brought humanity all the way from the Milky Way and allowed exploration of Andromeda. Neither galaxy was fully explored, but that would come in time, or so we believed. A shudder ran through me at the thought of this dream being lost forever. Which star system would I chose when all practical ability to travel between heliospheres vanished? What would that mean for future generations?
According to my tortured friend, the Ultar tech came at a horrible price. If I understood his ranting, and if he was right, the sentients were often forced to sacrifice one of their navigators to the mind-rending calculations required to travel almost instantaneously. So many questions arose from that speculation. Didn’t they have computers? If they did, why didn’t they use them? What about mind-enhancing drugs that were so popular in science fiction stories?
Why weren’t they sweeping across the Andromeda galaxy, conquering anyone who defied them?
Once my mind and body were warmed up, I headed for the deployment bay with butterflies in my gut. Years had passed since I last saw the inside of a rig. No one on my squad understood the dangers of using the machine without a qualified combat technician. Nothing would work efficiently. Things would break. My control of weapons, tools, and even navigational screens would be unpredictable and dangerous to everyone around me.
Regina beeped politely in my ear. “Hey, boss, you have an incoming message from Jacob Morales that I can’t screen.”
I stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Put him through, unless I need to be on the bridge for this.”
“He didn’t specify,” Regina said. “Connection in three: three, two, one, you’re live.”
“Breaker.” Morales looked older and tired. “I need a progress report and it can’t be anything other than you found the twins and are en route to deliver them.”
“I have them, but there is a complication.”
He waved that away, read something from a screen an off-camera subordinate held up and repeated his demand. “You are about to get an order from APOP Director Lively and APF Admiral Chan to turn them over. Neither will accept compromise, and they have no intention of sharing these assets.”
My blood pressure increased, but I held back my instinctive response.
“What is the complication?” he asked.
“They were poisoned. Without the antidote, they will die.”
He thought for several seconds, then soldiered onward. “Turn them over to me, then secure the remedy and bring it. I’ll tell you where once you have it. Everything will happen fast. You may have to fight. Now is the time to pick sides.”
“What are my options?” A hint of annoyed sarcasm slipped into my tone. “I thought we all worked for the citizens of the AP.”
He didn’t bother to argue the point, but his expression spoke volumes. My mentor wasn’t in the mood for that discussion.
I didn’t like being pushed into a corner. “The twins will die.”
He waved away my concerns. “I have a great medical team. We can sustain them until you bring the cure.”
“What if I can’t find it or take it?”
His eyes narrowed. “Who has it?”
“Lord Havna.”
“I know of him, but we’ve never met. My contacts will reach out and set up a meeting.”
“He already tried to murder my entire squad. He’s a crusader of some sort. You can’t bargain with him. Push too hard, and it will be another war.” My plan seemed reckless but still better than AP warships surrounding Avian Prime and demanding compliance from a powerful local lord.
“My negotiators are good, and so are my special operations teams,” Morales said. “If they can’t buy it, they’ll steal it. Either will take time.”
“I don’t think we have much of that.”
He ordered everyone out of his comm room, then gave me a look I hadn’t seen since the Transit Wars. “Go down there and take it. Use any means necessary. The survival of the AP depends on your success.”
Why did I resent his order to do exactly what I was going to do anyway? My stomach tightened. For the first time, it seemed I barely knew the man. I felt completely alone. The words of Jonas Bayle crept into my thoughts. Images of Glaynia glowed brightly in my imagination. I heard Lord Havna shouting to kill us.
I ended the call without responding to his order, because that was what it had been, despite his lack of authority to issue it. Director Lively was the only person in this scenario in my chain of command.
“Regina, block all incoming transmissions. We seem to be having technical difficulties.”
“You are very perceptive, boss. Nothing is working in the comm relays. I will get it fixed ASAP and enter my efforts in the AI log.”
“Thanks, Regina.”
“Good luck with that rig,” she said. “I worry you will run into trouble without a combat technician.”
“You’re the best, Regina.” I altered course for the deployment bay. “Check on my squad and make sure they’re not putting anything on 105.”
“Of course.” She added video images to my wrist screen, which was too small to be useful, but the thought meant something. “I would feel better if you had three additional drivers and four CTs.”
“You and me both.”
25
What surprised me when I arrived was Cissi’s outfit. She had begged, borrowed, or stole utility fatigues and modified them to accommodate her wings. This wasn’t the look of a young woman heading to reunite with her family. She was decked out for something entirely more adventurous.
In this light, the vibrant color spectrum of the feathers was something to see. I wasn’t sure how she didn’t command more attention from her people, because the sight of her was majestic despite her diminutive size.
Nova caught the direction of my gaze and cocked an eyebrow. “She’s really something.”
“Why is she here? Did someone tell her she was part of the crew now?”
Nova leaned close. “She wants to go with you. Her argument is sound. You might need a translator and she will only be a liability if we have to defend the ship against boarders. You can take care of her.”
“Not a chance.” I strode to my rig and planted my fists on my hips. The exterior had been polished before going into storage and again when my team pulled it out of the crate. Parts gleamed. Nothing could hide chipped paint, grooves in the metal, and other evidence of hard use, however. “Look at this glorious hunk of wires and metal.”
“The power plant is impressive, despite the availability of newer technology,” Kyn said. “Clean lines, a very sensible design.”
I slapped a hand down on his shoulder. “It sure is. Better yet, you listened to instructions. You did, didn’t you? Follow instructions?”
The Glosser’s face reddened in mild embarrassment, which also meant his hair ruffled slightly, just for an instant. “We examined all the parts we could.”
“I’m sure you did.”
“We could have attached weapons,” Woods said for the group. “A rail is a rail no matter the firing platform.”
“Not a good idea.”
Lehman joined in. “I read the manual three times and worked through training simulations Regina provided. There is nothing to prevent us from performing technician work, especially if we work as a team—which we always do.”
Unsure how to answer, I hesitated.
Nova crossed her arms. The squad fell in behind her to form a united and very skeptical front.
“CTs do more than set up the gear. They keep it running no matter what happens. I’ve hopped on one leg in this thing. Snow made a prosthetic in the middle of a battle out of a forklift and binding tape. She knew everything about the rig, and me. More importantly, she had access to every system.”
Lehman moved to the front and became the spokesperson for the group. His analytical nature made him the natural student of the Breaker system. “Can’t you give us access?”
I shook my head. “Snow couldn’t even do that. One of the reasons Breakers are out of service is that the engineers who built them didn’t want them hacked. Every interface is high-level encryption and proprietary technology.”
“Sounds like built-in job security,” Lehman said, rubbing his chin in thought.
“There’s more to it. Tech-ing for a rig like this is a combination of science and art.
Nova stared straight into my face. “Too bad you don’t know where Snow is.”
“She’s on Jenna’s World.”
“Are you sure?” My sergeant knew me well. We had come a long way since the triple homicide investigation. She wasn’t just asking a question. She was testing me for honesty while at the same time probing my psychology.
