“They cracked my faceplate and gassed me. I let them think I’d inhaled a lot of it and was more unconscious than I was.”
“So you were only partially unconscious when I saw you on the camera, androids tearing pieces of your armor off like wolves digging into a scaled rothrat?”
“Something like that. I’d spotted the cameras in that hallway and thought I should wait to free myself until I was in a blind spot. As for the rocket launcher…” He hefted the giant weapon—the barrel was long enough that it would drag on the floor if he didn’t carry it just so. “It was in a closet with cleaning supplies.”
“The natural place to store a weapon.”
“In a house run by a mafia woman, I imagine so.” Leonidas glanced toward the shelf where he had set those vials, then nodded toward the back door. “Shall we head out? That way should be unblocked.”
“Yes, I understand the elevator is out of service.”
Leonidas patted the rocket launcher, and they headed for the back door.
Solstice narrowed her eyes as they passed, perhaps because they were walking side-by-side, Leonidas’s arm still around Alisa’s shoulder. She thought about squeezing his butt when Solstice would be sure to see it, but decided that would be petty. Butt squeezes should be for private fun, not to show off possession.
“Don’t forget my offer, Colonel,” Solstice called after them.
“I won’t,” he said without looking back.
“Security chief?” Alisa asked. Now, more than ever, Solstice probably wanted him in charge of city security, or maybe her personal security, since her resources had been decimated.
“I’ll tell you that when we get back too,” he said quietly, eyeing a wall-mounted camera as they passed. “You may actually want to take advantage of it.”
“If Solstice is offering, I doubt it.”
“We’ll see,” he said.
Chapter 5
Alisa paced as she waited for everyone to file into the mess hall, a mess hall that was clear of boxes now. Unaware of the schemes of their CEO, a couple of CargoExpress representatives had come by to pick up Beck’s packages for delivery. She hoped Leonidas hadn’t had to pay a fortune for it, since he and his armor had suffered so ignobly due to the whims of the company’s founder. At least he could afford to be generous. Alisa didn’t pay him much for his security officer position, but he’d made out when he turned in those dinosaur heads the last time they had been on Cleon Moon.
Yumi and Mica walked into the mess hall together, sharing sly grins about something, and Alisa waved for them to sit down. Mica had a netdisc in hand and was poking at a holodisplay, taking some notes. Or maybe that was a sketch. She seemed to be drawing.
Beck was already in the mess hall, whistling to himself as he perused notes in a recipe program open on his netdisc. Young-hee had also joined them. Even though she was much younger than the Starseers tutoring the children, it seemed she had been pushed forward as the representative of the group, the person officially given the job of dealing with the grubs.
Leonidas leaned against a bulkhead, his bruises having swollen significantly since leaving Solstice’s compound. Alisa wanted to kiss them and bring him an ice pack, but she also wanted to throttle him a little, since he hadn’t yet shared the details of what he’d learned from Solstice, saying only that he might as well tell everyone at once, because she would probably want to include the rest of the group in her decision-making. It excited her to hear that there were decisions to be made. That was promising. She’d also lost some of her exasperation with him when he had pulled her into an alcove before they reached the docks and given her a kiss that had left her more than tingling.
“Something I don’t dare do on the ship anymore,” he’d said sadly when he let her go with obvious reluctance.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just find a place where we can be alone together when this is all over.”
“It’ll be easier if we can get Jelena to like you. You could be more… fun.”
“I’m afraid to be around her at all when thoughts of you pop frequently into my mind.”
“Oh,” she’d said, realizing why he might be spending so much time locked in his cabin. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a solution for that. All she could think to do was to dose him with Yumi’s qui-gorn powder, but she wasn’t sure how well that actually worked for keeping Starseers out of people’s heads. Abelardus had still been able to communicate telepathically with her when she’d taken a dose on the hidden asteroid base. Granted, she hadn’t known how much to take. Perhaps a bigger dose would have done more.
“Were you able to board the Nomad without trouble, Captain?” Yumi asked as Alisa continued to pace. “Earlier, Mica showed me footage of security androids standing outside the hatch, contemplating a way in.”
“Yes,” Alisa said. Those androids had been gone by the time she and Leonidas returned. As much as she detested Solstice, the woman had seemed willing to forgive Leonidas for destroying half of her compound and security team. It must be nice to be so handsome and desirable that women forgave such grievances. “We’re just waiting for Abelardus and Alejandro.” Mostly Abelardus, she amended silently, not caring if Alejandro made it to the meeting. She was glad, however, that they had reported in, saying they’d successfully gotten Ostberg into a regen tank and paid for his treatment. Leonidas had, she’d learned, footed the bill on that as well. She would take him off alone somewhere when all of this was over. He deserved to be loved, not locked away like a forest troll.
You need not wait any longer, Abelardus announced into her mind. We are arriving now. Fanfare would be acceptable.
There are some cookies on the table. Will that do?
Are they the white-and-black checkered ones?
I’m not sure. They’re new ones, I think. Frosted. Beck made some to give to the CargoExpress people to help ensure they wouldn’t jostle his packages overmuch.
Some people would just stamp fragile on the boxes.
Beck is special.
In many senses of the word.
Don’t be insulting, or I’ll let Leonidas eat the cookies. We had a battle. That always makes him hungry.
Actually, he had been busy taking care of his armor and hadn’t yet ravaged the cookie plate. Alisa hoped his case would be able to repair the damage the androids had done to the pieces. She vowed to wear her own armor the next time they went into a potentially dangerous situation. She should have been able to do more than run into an elevator and get herself captured.
“Disgraceful,” she muttered.
“How much pacing you’re doing?” Mica asked, looking up from her sketch.
“No, captains are supposed to pace.”
“Well, can’t you do it somewhere else? You’re disturbing the chickens.” Mica pointed to two that had escaped from their coop and were plucking at a pile of corn that someone had mounded in a corner of the mess hall.
Alisa was surprised the whole flock wasn’t up here. “They don’t look disturbed. They look fat.”
“Several people have taken up the slack and are feeding them now that Ostberg isn’t able to,” Yumi said. “Do you have a preliminary blueprint yet, Mica?”
Alisa halted her pacing and frowned suspiciously at them. Alejandro and Abelardus walked in, but she barely noticed.
“Blueprint for what?” Alisa asked.
“Your new aquaponics system, of course,” Mica said.
Yumi beamed a smile. “For the ducks and geese.”
“And fish,” Beck said.
Alisa groaned. Hadn’t she been firm enough when she’d said they wouldn’t be adding a pond to the Nomad? What kind of freighter had a duck pond in it?
“Isn’t that the kind of thing you’re supposed to check with the captain about before building?” Alisa stared at Mica, feeling betrayed. She’d known Beck and Yumi had been lobbying for this, but she hadn’t thought Mica would get involved in something so frivolous.
&nb
sp; “I haven’t built anything yet,” Mica said, holding up the holodisplay. “It’s a drawing. In air. That’s all.”
“Yet,” Alisa said, her mind snagging on that one word.
Alejandro sighed noisily. “You told us to hurry back for an important discussion, Captain. Surely this is not the topic.”
“Fish are important,” Beck said. “Especially when they’re perfectly grilled and drenched in a white sauce.”
Abelardus smirked across the mess hall at Alisa. Are you ever alarmed that this is the crew that’s supposed to obtain the Staff of Lore and save the galaxy from certain oppression and destruction at the hands of your uncle?
Actually, this is the crew that was supposed to get Jelena back, and it did. It’s wonderful.
“Is there room for a viewing window so we can see the fish swim?” Beck asked, leaning over Mica’s shoulder.
“A window?” Mica said. “This isn’t an amusement park attraction.”
Abelardus’s eyebrows twitched.
Mostly wonderful, Alisa amended and turned imploring eyes toward Leonidas. “Would you like to share the information you learned now?”
“Before the divisive window debate is settled?” he asked.
“You know, I don’t think your sense of humor is any less inappropriate than mine. It just comes out at different times.”
“Perhaps.” Leonidas nodded once and walked to the head of the table. “According to Solstice,” he said, making it clear from his emphasis that she might not be a reliable source, “the wealthy Beatrice Henneberry, owner of CargoExpress, is assembling many well-off entrepreneurial colleagues, as well as the heads of many of the more powerful mafia families, in a location that has not yet been disclosed, at least not to Solstice.”
Alejandro opened his mouth, probably to ask, “So what?”
“Tymoteusz is coming to the meeting.”
Alejandro’s open mouth sagged open further, and he didn’t say anything.
“What?” Beck asked, pushing his recipe holodisplay to the side. “Why? And who’s in charge of whom?”
“Apparently, Tymoteusz and his people have decided that the few dozen rogue Starseers he can influence won’t be enough to take over the system, even with the help of the Staff of Lore. He reached out to Henneberry, perhaps others, in the hope of creating a wealthy and powerful group that isn’t beholden to the empire or the Alliance. He wants their people and resources, and he’s offering a chance for them to position themselves in more advantageous places when the government is reordered. Naturally, he intends to get rid of the existing Alliance and also the remnants of the empire.”
“Naturally,” Yumi murmured, frowning at the table.
“What more advantageous position could the owner of CargoExpress need?” Beck asked. “That woman must have a gazillion tindarks and probably owns a few moons and planets too.”
“A place in history is what Solstice said,” Leonidas said. “Henneberry wants to be one of the founders of what could become the next empire, or its equivalent. A government that could last for centuries and affect every person living in our system.”
Alisa took a seat at the table, rested her elbows on it, twined her fingers together, and pressed her chin against them. Tymoteusz had been daunting enough to deal with when it had just been him, the staff, and however many of his people were on that ship of his. Even though the staff could deliver terrible damage, it hadn’t truly seemed that much more powerful than any other super weapon that current technology could come up with. Something to worry about, yes, but not something that would change the course of history. This, however, was alarming. With all those wealthy, powerful, and influential people, the odds of taking over the system seemed far more in his favor. And she could imagine just what kind of government would arise to service the needs of mafia families and business tycoons. By the suns, it might even be worse for the average citizen than the empire had been.
Leonidas had finished talking, and Alisa noticed that everyone was looking at her.
She closed her eyes. This wasn’t her fight, and it hadn’t been from the beginning, but somehow, here she was, at the center of it all. Again. Because she had promised to retrieve a little boy. Because she had helped pull that stupid staff into this dimension. Because the man threatening to take over the system was her uncle. Hells, why couldn’t she just run freight, teach Jelena how to fly, and have sex with Leonidas? She had simple desires. Shouldn’t the universe be willing to oblige simple desires?
“What are you thinking, Captain?” Yumi asked.
“She’s contemplating sex currently,” Abelardus said.
“Captain,” Alejandro said in a scathing tone.
Alisa gave Abelardus a flat look.
“There may have been something about running freight too,” he said. “While having sex.”
“If I were paying you, I’d fire you.” Alisa sighed, letting her gaze shift back toward the table. “Does anyone have any ideas? It seems like we might want to sneak into this meeting.”
“With a tracking device,” Mica said.
Alisa lifted her eyebrows.
“If Terrible Tym shows up, that wouldn’t be necessary, but if they meet up somewhere around here and then fly to his location, they could lead us to him.”
“And where Tymoteusz is, Thorian should be too,” Alisa said.
“Buying a tracking device would be easy. I can do that here and modify it for our needs.”
“So long as one of us is able to get in and stick it in a remote corner of Henneberry’s ship?” Alisa asked.
“Presumably, that would have to happen. Unless you could talk Solstice into doing it.”
“Doubtful,” Leonidas said. “Solstice didn’t sound like she planned to go to the meeting. She didn’t know where it was being held or when. This could be next week or next year.”
“I would think that Tymoteusz would want to cement alliances sooner rather than later. Even though he’s proven himself capable of handling everything we’ve thrown at him so far…” Alisa looked over at Young-hee, who winced. “He must feel vulnerable. He has to sleep, right? And currently, all he has is that ship, as far as we know. And it’s not a big ship, so he can’t have that large of a crew on it with him. Leonidas, do you have any idea if Henneberry was starting on Cleon Moon as part of her mafia-recruiting trip? Or was this a last stop? Did she already have a bunch of people lined up when she approached Solstice?”
“I don’t know, but I got the impression that Solstice hadn’t been given a lot of time to contemplate her decision.”
“She hadn’t made it yet?”
“No. She likes her dome; she’s not sure she wants to have to worry about ruling an entire system.”
“Hm.” Alisa wished she had asked more questions while dangling from that android’s grip. Not that either woman would have answered them or even acknowledged her. “Yumi, can you poke around on the sys-net and see if you can find the name of Henneberry’s flagship and where it’s parked right now? I assume she’s not taking public transit around the system. If it’s right here in this dome, that would be handy.”
“I’ll see if I can find it, Captain,” Yumi said. “I’ll recruit Bravo Six to help. He’s excellent at searching news sites and tabloids.”
“I’m sure his creators are so proud of him. Leonidas?”
“Yes?”
“Can you get in touch with Solstice? I’m assuming she slipped her private contact information into your undies while we were there.”
“She gave it to me the last time we were here.” His eyes closed to slits. “Undies were not involved.”
“No? How disappointing for her. After she personally accepts your call, as I’m guessing she will, please inform her that she is interested in ruling the system and that she definitely wants to go to that meeting.”
“You want me to tell her what she wants?”
“Yes,” Alisa said. “She owes us a favor now.”
“How do you figure that?”
“You didn’t kill her.”
“By that reasoning, every person I haven’t killed owes me a favor.”
“Sounds logical to me. And convenient. Maybe we should let people know.” Alisa beamed a smile at him, which he did not return. Ah, well. “Yumi will try to find out where her ship is currently, but it’ll be a lot easier if Solstice can tell us where and when the meeting will be held.”
“I have no doubt about that. What I doubt is that Solstice will tell me.”
“Don’t underestimate your charms.”
Abelardus made a noise between a snort and a cough. “His what?”
“Charms.” Alisa leaned over and patted Leonidas’s left and right pectoral muscles. “They’re prodigious.”
“I may gag,” Abelardus said.
“That would be mature.”
“Ah.” Beck held up a finger. “I might gag a little too.”
“See what you can do, please,” Alisa said, smiling at Leonidas again. Where was Stanislav now to subtly influence people to go along with her way of thinking? “In the meantime, I have something else I need to plan.”
She slid off the bench.
“Something exciting and dastardly?” Abelardus asked.
“How to get my father back from the Alliance.”
Chapter 6
Alisa slid into her seat in NavCom and checked for messages, hoping that Tomich had responded while she had been gone. Her heart quickened. A couple of messages had come in, and one was from him.
“Marchenko,” he said, a star-filled porthole behind his head. Wherever he was, it was back on a ship. Alisa decided to find that promising. “I’m en route to a new mission, so I don’t have time to say much, but I want to warn you: this isn’t the time to irk the Alliance. Something huge is going on out there, and if you stay out of trouble, they may forget all about you. That’s all I can say. Tomich, out.”
“Huh.” Alisa leaned back in her seat and fiddled with her braid. Something huge. Could the Alliance have gotten wind of the mafia meeting? Would Tomich have been sent out to investigate that? He wasn’t intel; he was a pilot. But maybe an intel team needed a high-ranking pilot to fly them somewhere. Or maybe his “something huge” had nothing to do with Henneberry and her meeting. Maybe Tomich was off on a unicorn hunt. Either way, the warning implied that this wouldn’t be a good time to storm—or sneak—aboard an Alliance warship to rescue Stanislav.