“Can you be more specific on which burden you want?” Alisa asked, realizing she hadn’t responded and that Bennington might find that suspicious. “I’m not trying to be funny here, but I have several burdens right now.”
The tug was still angling toward the Nomad, moving to overtake it—or come up beside it for an airlock transfer perhaps. Alisa could have shot straight out into space and left the Alliance craft behind, but she did not alter her course again, not yet. She was within the tug’s firing range—salvage ship or not, it had likely been used during the war and would be outfitted with weapons—and she did not want to take a butt full of buckshot if she could help it. Besides, she was curious about the commander’s offer.
“Your life sounds complicated,” Bennington said, her tone still friendly. “Why don’t you let us simplify it?”
“How?”
Alisa was debating on mentioning that Alejandro had the orb and wouldn’t let her simply walk it to the airlock when Bennington responded with the unexpected.
“Let us come alongside you, attach to your airlock, and bring some men over. We have an aerosol sedative that will knock out your passenger. I assume you have him chained or otherwise restrained somewhere?”
Alisa snorted. She wouldn’t mind chaining up Alejandro, but that hardly seemed necessary. It wasn’t as if he was a fighter. She could probably just lock him in his cabin. The real threat was Leonidas.
Thinking his name sent a jolt through her, and she felt like a dunce as she realized what “burden” the commander wanted to relieve her of.
“You’re looking for Leonidas?” she blurted before she could stop herself. That tone of surprise would tell Bennington too much, that she had something else of value on board.
“I assume you know that’s a pseudonym, Captain,” Bennington said, some of the friendliness disappearing from her voice, “and that you’re harboring Imperial Cyborg Corps Commander, Colonel Hieronymus Adler aboard your ship.”
“No. I mean, yes. I mean, he paid his fare.” Alisa rubbed her face. Could she possibly sound more daft? This was throwing her off balance; she had been so certain they wanted the orb. “And he neglected to give me his real name.”
Alisa didn’t hear a noise behind her; it was more a sense of being watched that made her turn in her chair.
Leonidas stood in the hatchway, his arms folded over his chest as he leaned against the jamb. His face was impassive as he listened.
“I’m not surprised,” Bennington said, “though I am a little surprised that you took a cyborg on as a passenger, knowing fully well that they serve the empire.”
“Well, he didn’t advertise what he was,” Alisa said, glancing at Leonidas’s jacket with the Cyborg Corps patch on the front. It was the same jacket he had been wearing the day they met, the day he leaped thirty feet off the top of the Nomad and landed in the dust as if he’d hopped down from a curb.
Leonidas raised a single eyebrow.
“Captain, I hope you’re not implying that he’s walking around your ship of his own free will. Cyborgs are extremely dangerous, and he’s one of the most dangerous. The war crimes he’s committed…”
Alisa hardly felt in the position to judge anyone for war crimes. Especially Leonidas. Since she had known him, he’d acted much more honorably than she had. Admittedly, she hadn’t known him long, and she had no idea what caused those nightmares he seemed to have on a regular basis.
“You’re right that he’s dangerous, Commander,” Alisa said, now wishing she had been smoother and faster to think when the officer had first revealed what she wanted—things might have been easier if she’d just said that Leonidas had gotten off on Perun. “And I’m afraid I can’t accept your offer. Especially since I know the bounty on his head is two hundred thousand tindarks.”
Leonidas’s other eyebrow rose. He didn’t seem surprised to hear about the bounty, but was perhaps mildly surprised to hear that Alisa had known about it. Granted, she hadn’t known about it long, and it had slipped her mind during all the chaos on Perun.
Bennington huffed out a breath. “I knew you knew who he was.”
“I’m sorry I can’t accept your offer.” Alisa wasn’t sorry at all. She would hand Alejandro and his orb over if it would help the Alliance and keep the empire from regaining power, but she couldn’t betray Leonidas. Her conscience wouldn’t let her. More than that, she was certain he wouldn’t let her, not when he was standing right there listening to all this. Had he been there since the beginning? She wouldn’t be surprised if he had.
“Is that your final decision, then, Captain?” Bennington asked. “You won’t accept… one hundred and fifty thousand tindarks for him?”
“Not to be impertinent, Commander, but do you even have that kind of money to offer? I know the Alliance isn’t that flush with cash yet, being too busy recovering from the war, and quite honestly, I don’t understand why this cyborg is worth that much.” This time, she was the one to raise an eyebrow, directing the gesture at Leonidas.
He didn’t give her anything in return. He merely gazed at the tug on the view screen, his face a mask.
“I assure you that I am authorized to provide the funds,” was all Bennington said.
Alisa doubted it very much. She adjusted the Nomad’s flight path and increased to maximum speed. It was time to leave that tug back there kissing the moon. “Sorry, Commander, but I want the full two hundred thousand.”
“You greedy little smuggler,” Bennington growled. “You would extort the Alliance? Even after you served in the war?”
“I’m not extorting anyone. You just can’t have him. He’s mine.” Feeling a little silly for not having a better excuse than that, Alisa shut off the comm before the officer could answer. Having Bennington think her greedy and that she wanted the full bounty for herself was better than having her know the truth, that she liked Leonidas and didn’t want to hand him over to her government or anyone else’s. And honestly, it made her feel like more of a traitor than just wanting the money would have. Cyborgs were imperials, and imperials were enemies. She wasn’t supposed to like them.
“So, it turns out that the Alliance is looking for you,” Alisa told Leonidas, as if it would be news to him. She didn’t look back at him to check his reaction. She was watching the tug in the camera as the Nomad sped away.
The big Alliance craft was lumbering right after her. But, as she had guessed, the Nomad was faster. Alisa raised her shields in case the tug tried to fire. She didn’t think they were close enough for the vessel to use a grab beam, but it would have a lot of range and power for towing, so she couldn’t be sure.
“I know,” Leonidas said.
He stepped into navigation and surprised her by laying a hand on her shoulder. She was too busy flying to analyze how the gesture made her feel, but it seemed to be one of thanks, and she appreciated it. He could have easily threatened her during that conversation, but he must have known that he didn’t need to. But had he believed it was because she wouldn’t be foolish enough to try to make a deal for him while he stood there listening, or had he realized that she’d come to care about him and wouldn’t have betrayed him even if he hadn’t been there listening? She wished she could find a way to let him know it was the latter, but she didn’t know how. Even if she tried, would he believe her, after she had stolen from Alejandro?
Leonidas removed his hand and sat in the co-pilot’s seat. She was just thinking that it would be nice to have some company for a while when the proximity alarm went off again.
“Now what?” she groaned. “I do not have enough chocolate on board to deal with all of these hassles.”
The tug was still following them, but it had fallen behind, so that wasn’t the source of the alarm.
“If you had a crate of chocolate, would that be enough?”
She snorted, wondering if he would be willing to bribe her with chocolate if she avoided the Alliance ships that were after him all the way to Arkadius.
Not one but t
hree large blips appeared on the radar. They flew out from behind the moon, as the salvage ship had done earlier. These weren’t slow, bulky vessels, and Alisa groaned again as she recognized them. Alliance warships.
“No,” she whispered. “Not even a crate would be enough.”
Chapter 15
Leonidas saw the warships and immediately headed for the hatchway.
“Any chance you’re going to get me chocolate?” Alisa asked, scanning the space around them, wishing a comet or a rogue band of meteors would stray into range so she would have something to hide behind, someplace to run from those ships. But the green moon was the only body nearby, and the Alliance warships, coming from that direction, would easily intercept her. The featureless sphere held few hiding spots, anyway, and she doubted the domed moon stations would invite her to dock.
“I’m getting my combat armor,” Leonidas said, his voice grim.
“Leonidas.” Alisa turned toward him. “Even if I had weapons, I couldn’t… I can’t get in a fight with Alliance warships.”
It was cheeky of them to all show up this close to Perun and that orbit full of imperial warships, but there they were, nevertheless.
“I’m not asking you to. They want me alive. They’ll have to come get me.” A fiercely defiant expression crossed his face before he ducked out of view, jogging to his cabin.
The comm flashed, and Alisa sighed. Was there any point in answering? It was probably Commander Bennington again, prepared to be smug now that her backup had arrived.
It flashed relentlessly as the warships closed, no question as to their destination. Like the tug, they were on an intercept course with the Star Nomad.
Feeling cranky, Alisa swatted the button. “What?”
“What?” an amused male voice on the other line asked. “Is that really how you answer the comm now that you’re a civilian, Marchenko?”
Alisa gaped at the console. The man’s voice was familiar, as was the way he had said her name, but it took her a few seconds to place it. “Captain Tomich?”
“It’s Commander Tomich now. There were lots of promotions after the war ended and the temporaries mustered out. Look at what I got.”
Alisa linked the comm signal with the ship it had come from, the Viper-class warship in the lead. She was a beauty, newer and bigger than the two trailing it, though any one of those ships could have pulverized the Nomad in seconds.
“Not that you’re smug about it,” Alisa said.
“Not at all,” Tomich said, a familiar grin in his voice. It had been two years since they had served together—he had been her squadron leader when she’d been assigned to the Merciless. He was practically the one who had taught her that snark was expected from military pilots, not that she hadn’t already had a knack for it.
“I can’t believe they gave you a ship that big. You could barely land your cobra without scraping the paint off on the hangar bay doors.”
“This ship has bumpers.”
Alisa snorted.
“So, are you truly a greedy little smuggler these days,” Tomich asked, quoting Bennington, “or are you in an awkward situation?”
“Awkward doesn’t even begin to describe my week,” Alisa replied before she had fully parsed the nuances of the question. She realized he might be asking if she was a prisoner on her own ship, with Leonidas being the one in charge.
“I see,” he said, annoyance replacing the smile in his voice.
He was not, she sensed, annoyed at her. It pleased her that Tomich thought well enough of her to assume she was not a traitor, but it didn’t necessarily change anything for her. Well, it might if she was willing to sit back and let them board and take Leonidas. If she did, they might let her go on her way after that. But it would be intolerable to hand him over to the army, even if it was her army, to be interrogated for who knew what reasons. What did he know that they wanted to know? It had to be information that they sought or they wouldn’t care if he was turned in alive or dead. That warrant specifically said he had to be brought in alive for the reward.
“Is he there with you now?” Tomich asked quietly.
Alisa leaned out of her seat so she could see through the hatchway. The short corridor was empty.
“He’s… around,” she said. She would not say that Leonidas was putting on his combat armor, though it probably didn’t matter. Surely Tomich would expect that.
“Is the boy with you?”
“Boy?” She was sure the puzzlement came through in her tone. All she could think of was Alejandro, but the retired surgeon was surely not a boy.
“I’ll take that for a no.” Tomich sighed. “Unfortunate.”
“I’ll pretend I know what you’re talking about, so we can move on to the more personally pertinent part of this conversation. Is there any chance I’m going to get out of this alive?”
“The Alliance has no quarrel with you or your… I’ll be generous and call that a freighter. Is it hard to fly that after a Striker?”
“Is this really the time for you to be mocking my ship?”
“No, perhaps not.” Tomich lowered his voice to a whisper. “Lay low, Alisa. Stay out of the way, and don’t let yourself get turned into a meat shield. We have to get him.”
She dropped her face into her hand, feeling utterly helpless. She highly doubted Leonidas would use her as a shield, so that wasn’t her concern. Sitting here and doing nothing and letting them take him was. But what choice did she have? Even now, with the Nomad cruising away from the moon at top speed, the other ships were closing on her, moving to flank her. There was nowhere to run.
And as much as she had come to like Leonidas, a selfish part of her admitted that her life would become much, much simpler if the Alliance simply took Leonidas and Alejandro and the orb off her hands. It wasn’t as if they had paid her to protect them. All they had paid for was fare. Granted, she would feel a little bad if she kept their money after they’d been hauled off by the army less than two hours after taking off, but again, what choice did she have?
“None,” she muttered.
“Pardon?” Tomich asked.
“I’ll do my best to cooperate,” she told him.
“Just keep yourself from getting hurt. I have a lot of young twitchy infantry boys with big guns that I’m sending over there.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“I’m sorry I can’t do more.” He sounded like he meant it. “The tug is coming to lock onto you and keep you in place, so you don’t fly off. I remember your skills well.”
“You needn’t worry about them. There’s no place to hide, and this freighter doesn’t have any weapons.”
“Doesn’t it? You should have retrofitted it. I don’t think the Alliance is going to be as anal when it comes to civilians with weapons, especially when we don’t yet have the people and resources to patrol the entire system.”
“I wasn’t planning to have such controversial passengers. I’m a freighter, Tomich. A freighter. There are chickens in the cargo hold.”
“We’ll try not to disturb them.”
Sure, they would sleep right through the blazer bolts zipping over their feathered heads.
Disgusted with the entire situation, Alisa closed the comm. She turned in her seat and found Leonidas standing in the hatchway, his crimson armor gleaming, everything except his helmet on.
“Meat shield?” He sniffed. “Cyborgs do not hide behind civilians.”
“What about behind other cyborgs?”
“That’s slightly more acceptable. I don’t suppose you have any on board?” He smiled at her. Out of all of the emotions she would have expected from him in his present situation, amusement was not one of them.
“No, and I think my tendency toward inappropriate humor is rubbing off on you.”
“You may be right. That’s disconcerting.” He smiled again.
Three suns, he wasn’t looking forward to going into battle against those young twitchy infantry boys, was he? Alisa didn’t think
she had ever seen him in such a good mood.
But why not? Those Alliance soldiers were enemies to him. He probably enjoyed the idea of taking out as many of them as he could. After all, they had destroyed his empire.
They were not enemies for her, though. The thought of this confrontation horrified her. She could not expect him to let them take him without a fight, but with the way he fought, he would likely take out twenty of their people before they managed to subdue him, especially since they wanted him alive. If she had a doctor who was on her side, she could have asked him to come up with a concoction to knock Leonidas out, as the tug commander had implied they had. But her gut twisted at the idea of doing that to Leonidas, even if she could. She didn’t want to hand him over. She wanted to go on her way, find Jelena, hire Leonidas to work for her, and proceed to live a normal life.
White flashed on the view screen, and the Nomad shuddered. The tug’s grab beam wrapped around them. The warships had caught up, too, and fenced them in, one in front, one behind, and one to the side. With the tug on the other side, she felt like a lion in a cage in a zoo.
“I’ll wait at the airlock and charge onto their ship if I can,” Leonidas said. “I suggest you call the rest of your people up here and lock the hatch. The soldiers shouldn’t have a reason to harass the rest of you. Most of you.” He looked down, checking the battery pack on the blazer rifle slung over his chest. “I know you must have thought about handing Dr. Dominguez over, too, but since they haven’t inquired about him and the artifact, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t volunteer anything about him. Of course, I can’t stop you if you do.” He inclined his head and turned toward the hatchway.