The disgust in his voice is impossible to miss. Both Macon and I look at him, distracted by this near stranger’s strong opinion that we all three share.
“What do you know about it?” I ask.
“Enough to say that it’s wrong, and it has consequences that are very far-reaching. Look at you.” He gestures at us with a flung-out hand. “Friends turned into enemies. For what? For a show of force? Against whom? Your own people?”
Macon and I both shrug, but I’m the one who speaks for us. “It’s all we knew. We were raised in the middle of it.”
“You don’t question,” Macon adds. “You just follow orders.”
“Not anymore,” I say, turning back to my friend. “I go my own way.”
Macon lifts his chin. “So do I.”
My smile isn’t so happy this time. “But you stowed away on my ship, and gave my location away to this guy Bob.” I step away from Macon as my heart turns to lead in my chest. We were friends once, but now I see that he views me as an enemy. And while I might want to go back to where we used to be, I know it’s unrealistic to think this could ever happen. Those who were friends are now enemies … the story of my life.
“What am I supposed to do with you now?”
Macon moves to the center of the chamber, his arms hanging by his sides, his face like stone. I remember it that way once before, right before our fight began. He accepted his fate then, knowing he was outmatched, and he’s accepting it now.
“Float me. I’m ready.” He turns his back to me and stares out the airlock portal at the Dark beyond.
Jeffers looks at me, anger simmering in his eyes because he thinks I’m going to push that red button. I won’t lie; the thought is crossing my mind. The punishment for treason is death. The punishment for trying to take over someone’s ship, for bringing bad people on board, is death. But today, death feels like a mistake, like something I don’t want to invite into my world … because Death has a funny way of sticking around. He’s like a visitor who doesn’t know when it’s time to go back home. And Macon is my friend.
I kept Macon from leaving my world once before by refusing to take the final step in our match, and I’m going to have to do it again. I sigh heavily as the weight of my decision settles onto my shoulders. I will live with these consequences, good or bad, I just wish I knew what they were going to be before I committed to them. My father would be so disappointed in me and the mercy I’m about to show. The thought of that brings just a sliver of light into my world and makes the burden on my shoulders just a fraction lighter.
I walk backward until I’m at the threshold, my heart breaking into several pieces as I view my friend’s back. His stance tells me he’s ready to be sacrificed for the sins of our fathers, that he expects nothing from me because he doesn’t believe I have it in me to be merciful.
I deserve the rejection, there’s no doubt about that. The small act of clemency I showed him before by not slitting his artery when I could have and was expected to has obviously caused him untold pain. I deserve whatever hatred he has festering in his soul against me. Hell, I nearly killed him, this after years of friendship and support going in both directions. At one point I thought he might even be interested in me romantically, not that I reciprocated that emotion; but still … it sucks to be almost killed by someone you love and trust. I know that better than anyone.
“Just keep an eye on him,” I say to Jeffers with a hoarse voice, before leaving them both in the airlock.
“Is he to be considered an enemy?” Jeffers calls out after me.
I respond when I’m several meters down the corridor and in better control of my emotions. “No. Just someone we can’t trust.” There’s a lot more I need to figure out before I’ll be ready to make any hard decisions about this situation with Macon. For now, Captain Bob is my more immediate problem. I try not to be happy about putting things off with Macon, because it’s the sign of someone who can’t be decisive, but I am. I can’t deal with him right now. He’s here, he’s alive, and I’m hopeful that he won’t hate me forever, even though I have no reason to be. He’s probably been waiting for the perfect moment to slit my throat since the moment he saw me.
The portal to the flightdeck slides open to admit me, and I find Baebong in my chair. He gets up when I climb the steps and goes back to his seat. “Sorry. It’s just easier with your array when I have to watch everything.”
“Not a problem.” I notice that the comm line is up and the clearpanel is still showing Rollo facing the Dark beyond the airlock. “You heard everything?”
“Impossible not to.” Baebong isn’t looking at me.
I clear my throat, ashamed that Baebong knows what I did, but knowing he deserves to hear the truth. “Macon was my friend. Like family to me.”
“Sounds like you fucked up,” he says simply.
A tear slips past and I quickly wipe it away. “I did. I really did.”
“Everyone fucks up once in a while.”
“Does everyone fuck up by slitting her friend’s throat?”
Baebong doesn’t answer at first. But then he turns his chair around and stares at me. I have to drop my gaze under the intensity of it.
“Listen …,” Baebong says, sounding tired, “…was it wrong to slit his throat from a moral standpoint? Yes. No one’s going to argue against you there. But it’s never just about morality when you’re fighting, is it? Besides … who you were then, is not who you are now. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be hanging out with you. I like my head attached to my body too much to hang out with people who go around beheading their friends.”
I shrug. “Maybe you’re right.”
“How long after that fight did you leave the OSG?”
I think back to the day, to the minutes and hours after my confrontation with Macon. It went by in a blur then, I was so panicked; but with the perspective of distance and time, I can see things more clearly now. Probably more so than ever before. Being with Macon again has brought it all back.
“Within hours, actually.”
“Tell me about it.”
I look up at the clearpanel that shows Bob floating off in the distance. “What about him?”
Baebong’s gaze never leaves me. “He can wait. He’s not going anywhere, and Adelle is watching for any signs of weaponry warming up for use.” He bends over to rest his forearms on his thighs. “Talk to me. Tell me what happened.”
Chapter Fifteen
I LOOK OFF INTO THE distance as the memories assail me. It’s like Baebong has opened up a door that I’ve kept locked up tight for a long time. A flood of emotion, sounds, and faces rushes across my mind’s eye, and I start to talk without even realizing what I’m going to say. I just let the words flow out of me like a poison I have to rid my system of.
“It was a huge day for both of us. Level Ten testing is a super big deal to the OSG. To everyone there, actually … family, friends … people you don’t even know care about how you do. Everything rides on that fight.”
“A fight to the death, right?”
“Yeah.” Even hearing someone else say it makes me ashamed. “Sickening, huh?”
“I’m not judging, I’m just listening. Don’t stop.”
I have to let out a shaky breath before I can continue. I’ve already made big mistakes with friends; I don’t need to make any more, and keeping Baebong in the dark about who I am and what I’ve done is pushing him away. I’m done with that shit.
“You don’t know who you’re going to be matched against. It’s not random, though. A panel of instructors picks and matches the contenders. They’re supposed to assess strengths and weaknesses and place them together to make it as fair as possible.”
“What’s the point of it?”
“The point?” I shrug. “I don’t know. To weed out the ones who can’t cut it. To end up with the best of the best.”
“So they train recruits until they’re like, what … eighteen … and then they let half of them die?”
?
??Pretty much. Not everyone dies. But the ones who don’t wish they had.”
“Why?”
I look up. “Because. They get banished. Stripped of everything. It’s pretty much certain death, but slow and painful. Not like being floated.”
“Banished where?”
I can tell he doesn’t get it. I cringe inside while giving the details. “There’s this planet. It’s called Morab. Most people don’t even know it exists.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Yeah. Well, it’s in the Far Reaches. Past the Badlands, even. Losers who aren’t killed in the round get dumped off there with nothing but the clothes on their backs.”
“And you’re sure they die there? That’s the goal?”
I shrug, kind of not certain now, even though I used to be very sure of the answer to this question. “Before I would have said they all died. The place is a dust bowl. There’s no water to speak of, bacteria like none we have here, no MI, no shelters, questionable atmospheric conditions and poor oxygen levels … it doesn’t make sense that Macon’s alive, really.”
“And yet he is.” Baebong sounds excited.
I look up and nod. “Yeah. He is. I got lucky.”
“You both got lucky. Or, things on Morab are not what you think.”
I wait for him to continue, knowing from his posture that he’s about to go on a roll.
“What if people don’t die there? What if they survive and find a way off the planet?”
I shrug, thinking about the implications. “Then the OSG has a big group of people out there who are really pissed at them and probably harboring some seriously vengeful thoughts against them, too.”
“Yeah. Maybe. Or maybe Rollo … Macon … was never sent there. Maybe he got away like you did.”
I shake my head. “He was almost dead. I honestly don’t know how he survived at all. There’s no way he got up and walked away.”
Baebong snorts. “He survived because you let him. Don’t try and play it like it was an accident. I know you well enough to know that if you’d wanted him dead, he’d be dead. You’re a crazy bitch like that.”
A tiny smile tries to escape my lips, but I tamp it down quickly. “Stop saying that.”
“No. I’m not going to stop because it’s true. If you’d wanted to cut the guy’s damn head off, it’d be done. And you are a crazy bitch. You don’t hold back unless you want to show mercy. The guy should be thanking you and kissing your ass, not trying to sell you out to a fly-by-night droid fucker like Captain Bob. Captain Boob is more like it.”
A laugh barks out of me. I can’t help it. It feels so good to hear Baebong’s soothing words, even though I know I don’t deserve them. I gesture at the lame duck ship that’s pretending to be something it’s not. “So what are we going to do with Captain Boob?”
Baebong shrugs. “I don’t know. You’re the captain of this tank, not me.”
“A captain who’s open to ideas.” I wiggle my eyebrows at him, knowing it’ll get my friend thinking about all the crazy gadgets he has hidden away in his chamber. I’m hoping he has something we can use against Captain Boob that’ll make all my problems go away. A problem atomizer. That would be awesome. Ka-peewr, problems be gone!
Baebong turns his chair around and faces the guy. “Let’s drag him in. Make him stick around for a little while longer.”
“Can we do that?” Nothing I’ve read in my DS manuals ever hinted about any of them having tow kits that could take on a ship who wasn’t willing.
I can tell Baebong is smiling by the way his ears are moving back toward me.
“Oh, trust me,” he says. “We can tow his sorry ass.”
I close my eyes for a few seconds and try to envision what exactly that might entail, but I give up pretty easily. “Explain yourself, slant-eye.”
He punches up the comm link for engineering. “Yo, Gus!”
“Gus here,” comes the voice. “Talk dirty to me.”
“You think we can tow a PC cruiser with that rig you told me about hooked up to my thingy?”
“Heck yeah, man. No problem. It’d be aces.”
Tam’s voice comes from the background, a little fainter than his brother’s was. “I wouldn’t do it if I were you!”
I sigh and roll my eyes.
Baebong leans in closer to his transmitter. “Captain says she wants this guy to stick around.”
The background voice of Tam comes again. “Don’t do it, Captain! It’s not going to work!”
“Shut up, dick!” The sounds of something crashing and then a loud siren come out over the speaker for about ten seconds. Then it all cuts off along with the transmission link.
Baebong stands. “I’m going to go … check things out.”
“Yeah. You do that.” I watch him leave and then turn my attention back to Captain Boob. “So what’s your damage?” I say softly at the clearpanel. “Are you here to just mess with me or to take me down?”
I press the comm that will link me to him again. “Captain Bob, you still there?”
“Still here. Still waiting on answers.” He sounds bored.
“Rollo’s not going to float today, but he has given me a lot to think about.”
“Oh, he has, has he? Did he mention he’s an escaped convict? Wanted by the OSG? You’d do better to cut him loose than keep him around. Trust me on that.”
My hackles go up, but I play it cool. “Thanks for the tip. How’d you come to be partnering with him?”
“Me? Partnering with that guy? Pshaw. Please. I don’t partner with gutter rats. He told me he knew someone interested in doing some trades, so I followed him out here to have a little private conversation with his contact … do a little business, maybe, nothing too formal. I had no idea he hitched a ride without your knowledge.”
This story might be believable if the guy telling it wasn’t such a snake, but I know better. “What kind of trades were you wanting to do?”
“Oh, nothing much. Little o’ this, little o’ that.”
I smell the stink of lies coming with every single word that arrives over our comm link. “You interested in chickens by any chance?”
There’s a really long pause before he finally answers. “Chickens you say? What kind of chickens you got?” He can’t keep the excitement from his voice.
Idiot. No one gets that jacked up over poultry, not even way out here.
“Well, they’re not very fresh, but we might have one.” My heart is hammering in my chest. If this guy knows about the dead chickens, what can that mean for us? For the Alliance? Maybe he’s Alliance and this is some kind of test.
“I’d be interested. No need for freshness. Gonna feed it to my pig I got back at the old homestead, so, you know, even rotten is good.”
Ho-ly crap. He went for it. Captain Boob is right.
“Great to hear,” I say, using my soothing voice, letting him think I’m that stupid. “How about we dock up and see what there is to see? I’m sure you’ve got something I’d love to have on your ship.”
“You got it, little lady. Happy to. Standard protocol?”
I try really, really hard to keep the grin out of my voice. “Yeah, sure. Standard is fine. Looking forward to doing business with you.”
As soon as he starts to move his ship into position and we cut the comm link, I smash my hand onto the array and yell. “All crewmembers, prepare to be boarded by a stinking liar who is trying to pull a scam on us. Engineering, you there?” My breath is coming out in puffs as my pulse races way too fast.
“Oh, hell yeah, we’re here, Captain,” Gus says. “You want us to arm up? I got a ray repeater down here that’ll knock your socks off. Or his socks off. It’ll leave your socks alone. As long as it’s aimed properly, of course.”
“No, keep the arms unobtrusive. I don’t want him knowing we have the intent to keep him here, and I don’t want him seeing any firepower.”
“Got it. Engineering, outskeez.”
Lucinda cuts in from the biogrid
. “I don’t know what you expect me to do.”
“Lock up, Lucinda. No admittance to anyone, not even into the antechamber, and that includes Rollo.”
“Okay.” She sounds more alert now. “Anything I should be aware of?”
“Turns out Rollo’s an old friend who’s kind of pissed at me, so he’s not going to be working on the grid for now.”
“Great,” she says, hissing out a breath. “Forget sleeping, I guess.”
“I’ll get you some help, I promise.” Even if I have to turn myself into a damn brownshins again. “I’ve gotta go. Just stay locked up until further notice.”
“Understood. Biogrid out.”
“Jeffers,” I say, after linking up the hallway outside the float chamber where he’s standing and watching Macon beyond the portal window.
“Yes, Captain?”
“We’re being boarded by Captain Boob. I mean, Captain Bob.” I have to pause to wipe the sweat from my brow. “Lock Macon in the chamber and join me in the cargo bay, would you, please?”
“Yes, Captain. Right away.” He locks the portal, and Macon doesn’t even flinch. It’s like he’s given up, and that hurts even more than him being angry with me.
“Adelle!” I don’t realize I’m yelling until my voice bounces around the flightdeck. I clear my throat to try and get a handle on my emotions.
“Yes, Captain.”
“We’re going to dock up with that PC cruiser off the starboard side. I’ll need your assistance with that, and also, I’d like you to tap into his electronics if at all possible and disable them.”
“He might have a coldwall up, which would interfere in my ability to do that.”
“I realize that. Just do the best you can. I don’t want him getting off my ship until I’m good and ready.”
“I will do my best, Captain.”
I run from the flightdeck, the cargo bay my destination.
Chapter Sixteen
OUR SHIPS LINKED TOGETHER, CAPTAIN Bob comes through the airlock. A blinking red light above his head in the short corridor alerts me to the fact that he’s armed. His curly black hair and bushy beard make him look like an old-school Earth pirate. The big, overfed gut hanging over a thick leather belt is not hurting that image one bit. If he smiles at me and has metal for teeth, I will not be surprised.