A flash of orange erupted from the top of the vast mining ship. An explosion? Leonidas must have felt the reverberations through the hull, because he looked up. More smaller explosions followed the first, a chain reaction destroying parts of the ship.
“That was supposed to go off a minute ago,” Mica said.
“Given that we’ve only been out here for about a minute, I’m glad it didn’t.”
Leonidas looked back as Alisa adjusted the thrusters so that they could come in slowly. His eyes, just visible through the faceplate of his helmet, grew concerned, his features tense. He must have been alarmed to see the ugly Mantis bearing down on him, its cannons pointed at him. Alisa thought they had been through enough that he would trust her not to shoot him, but who knew what went through the minds of career cyborg soldiers?
She nudged the thrusters so the Mantis turned to display the side hatch for him and fiddled with the controls to prepare the airlock chamber. More explosions ripped along the top of the mining craft. They seemed small in comparison to the vastness of the giant ship, but Alisa had no idea what Mica had done and what the final result would be.
Perhaps thinking the same thing, Leonidas pushed off the hull and toward the Mantis. She heard the soft clink of his magnetic boots clamping onto the side. She flicked the outer hatch open as she slowly maneuvered away from the mining craft.
“Make room back there,” Alisa said over her shoulder. “You’re about to have company.” More quietly, she added to Mica, “The whole mining ship isn’t going to blow up, is it?”
“It shouldn’t. I was just trying to make a distraction, not earn the wrath of whatever corporation originally owned that ship. But I thought that if we could disable it, we might get a reward for reporting its location. It shouldn’t be difficult for the original owners to find it.”
“Has anyone ever successfully gotten a reward from a corporation?” Alisa asked.
“Am I being overly optimistic?”
“If so, it will be a first.” Alisa sighed. “Since we may not have a way back to the core of the system now, I’m hoping it doesn’t blow up. We may need you to fix whatever you did so it can take us to a space station.”
More clinks sounded as Leonidas moved into the airlock. Alisa closed the outer hatch and ramped up their speed in what was likely a vain hope that the Nomad would still be around and they could catch her.
“You didn’t mention creating a fixable diversion when you originally brought it up,” Mica said.
“I was planning on riding home in the Nomad then.”
Dented crimson armor came into view as Leonidas crouched to look through the low hatchway and into the cockpit. He had already removed his helmet. Alisa wondered if he’d heard them talking about the fact that they were stranded.
“Afternoon,” she said over her shoulder, though she had lost all track of the hours and did not know what time of day it was aboard the Nomad now. “For a minute there, I thought you were going to think yourself too good to accept a ride with us.”
“For a minute there, I thought you were going to shoot me,” Leonidas said. His left eye was swollen shut, and blood caked the side of his face.
“Nah, I already got one cyborg today. I didn’t feel the need to take out another.”
“I saw Malik fly past. Without his head.” Despite the fierce fight he and Malik had engaged in, Leonidas’s face was far more grim—almost remorseful—than jubilant.
Alisa, remembering the picture of Leonidas’s unit in Malik’s quarters, wiped the smirk off her own face. She might never have known Malik as anything but an enemy, but that wasn’t the case for Leonidas. Maybe he would even come to regret the choice he had made today, to save her in a way that ultimately led to his former colleague’s death.
“I’m sorry,” Alisa said quietly.
Leonidas’s gaze shifted to her face, but Mica spoke before he could say anything—maybe he hadn’t intended to say anything anyway.
“Look,” Mica blurted, pointing.
They had flown around the blocky body of the mining vessel and out into open space. Alisa might have fallen out of her seat if she hadn’t been strapped in. The Nomad was floating there, not moving at all. An equipment malfunction? Or were those people waiting for them?
“Mica, the comm. Can you see if they’re open to talking to us?”
Before she tried anything, the comm light flashed, and a male voice filled the cockpit. “Mantis ship, this is the Rambler. If your work there is done, you’re welcome to latch on and join us.”
A tentative giddiness swept over Alisa. Was something finally going their way? She could scarcely believe it.
“We would love to latch onto you, Nomad,” she said. “Appreciate you stopping to wait.”
“The promise of a real dinner instead of ration bars was too good to miss. Most of us haven’t had anything but dehydrated takka for months.”
“You hear that, Beck?” Alisa asked over her shoulder. “If you can grill up something better than takka, we’ve got a ship to come home to.”
“I would let the mech here chew my leg off with his enhanced teeth before I made something that didn’t taste wonderful.”
Leonidas’s eyebrows twitched, but he did not otherwise comment.
Alisa took the controls and guided them toward the Nomad.
“Home,” she whispered and was surprised she meant it.
Mica arched her eyebrows. “You might not be thinking that after spending a week packed on it with fifty escaped prisoners. I noticed from working with Sparky that hygiene wasn’t encouraged while they were in those cells.”
“I’m sure they can bathe along the way.”
“There’s only one lav. It’s going to be a rough week.”
“We’ve just defied impossible odds to escape with our lives, and you’re worried about a line when you have to tinkle?”
“I’m pragmatic.”
“You’re a pessimist.”
“Yes.” Mica smiled, as if this were a great compliment. “And as a pragmatic pessimist, I’m going to give you a tip: when you’re seeking to establish your authority over your crew and your new passengers, don’t use words like tinkle. Nobody will take you seriously.”
“What if I have a fierce cyborg looming behind my shoulder as I do it?” Alisa wondered what Leonidas would think if she tried to hire him. He hadn’t completed his mission, whatever it was, but maybe once he had, he would consider coming back to work security on the Nomad. Would that be too lowly a position for a former colonel? If she had him on her team, she would feel a lot safer the next time she had to deal with pirates.
“It depends,” Mica said. “While he’s looming, will he be laughing at you for using words like tinkle?”
“I really should fire you.”
“That would be more of a threat if you were paying me.”
Despite her engineer’s pessimism, Alisa smiled as the Nomad’s airlock came into view. Soon, she would be back on her own ship. Soon, she would be home.
Epilogue
“You going to try my barbecue, mech?” Beck asked, waving a spatula as Leonidas made his way through the crowded mess room, the single table packed with scruffy miners who were, as Mica had predicted, in need of baths and fresh clothes. Alisa had nearly been overwhelmed by their collective aroma when she had finished piloting them out of the asteroid belt and left NavCom. Fortunately, the scent of roasting meat and spices was proving predominant as Beck’s grill heated up. And, to Alisa’s surprise, the bear smelled appealing.
Still, it was going to be a long trip to Saranth Three, the space station where Alisa had agreed to drop the miners off. Very few of them wanted anything to do with Perun or the remnants of the empire. Alisa couldn’t blame them. Even though Leonidas was the reason they had been freed, they eyed him warily and made room as he passed.
“It’s almost ready,” Beck added when Leonidas paused. “Sweet spiced ginger marinade. I bet you’ve never had Octavian bear like this.”
r /> “I would be alarmed if he’d had it at all,” Alisa said, leaning against the wall to stay out of the way as she watched Beck work his portable grill at the end of the table.
“I’ve had it before,” Leonidas said. “I told you about our training exercises where I encountered them. We didn’t have any ration bars, so we had to survive on what we could catch. I remember eating the liver raw and not finding it particularly delicious.”
Alisa couldn’t keep from wrinkling her nose in disgust. “You shouldn’t say such things around women, Leonidas,” she said, waving at Yumi, Mica, and a couple of female miners who had found seats at the table.
“Why?”
“You’ll never get one of them to kiss you if they’re imagining your mouth chomping into raw organs.”
“Ah.” He did not appear overly concerned. He continued on his path through the mess and into the crew quarters area.
Going back to his reclusive ways, Alisa supposed. He had been scarce since they had left the mining ship, staying in his cabin for the most part. As far as she knew, he had not mentioned to any of the miners that he had been the one to arrange for their cell doors to open in a timely manner. Maybe it was shallow, but Alisa would want credit if she had saved a passel of people. She was pleased that a few of the miners had come up to her after her team had re-boarded the Nomad and thanked her for ridding the universe of Malik. Apparently, some of them had been watching that final fight on the view screen while their pilot worked on overriding control for the forcefield.
Alisa moved away from the wall and joined Beck by the grill. “Going to have enough for everyone?”
“Enough for a little taste. I removed a fairly substantial cut of meat from that beast, but I wasn’t thinking of feeding fifty at the time.”
“Only forty-seven, including us. I took a census. From what I’ve heard, we didn’t leave anyone behind except pirates, and they got what they deserved.”
“Yes, they did.” Beck grinned at her. “Am I going to get a combat bonus for my help?”
“Bonus? It’s not enough that I’m letting you have the honor of cooking for everyone?”
He snorted. “The honor is all yours. You’ll see. I’ve got some slaw and bread to go with this. You’ll love it.”
“Maybe someone here will taste your brilliance and turn out to have connections back in civilization, know someone who can help you in putting together that sauce line you mentioned.”
“Someone here?” Beck perused the scruffy crowd. “Really, Captain, if you don’t want to pay me a combat bonus, all you have to do is say so.” He slathered some more sauce on his steaks and flipped them.
“You deserve a bonus. I may just have to owe it to you. The cyborg bits I agonized over taking got left behind on the mining ship, and we’ve got a lot of extra mouths to feed for the next few days, so I’m going to be gliding into Perun on fumes.”
“Aw, I understand, Captain. Look, you keep saying you haven’t seen me when the White Dragon people come around, and I can wait to get paid until you’ve finished your business on Perun and found some profitable cargo to run.”
Alisa almost pointed out that running cargo was the last thing on her mind right now, but maybe it was time to start thinking about what she would do after she got her daughter. Beck seemed to think he would be working for her even after they reached Perun, and she had been thinking of giving Yumi a job and offering Leonidas one too. Didn’t that imply that she intended to go on being captain and finding a way to make a living with this ship? There was no reason why she couldn’t bring Jelena into the freight lanes and raise her out here, the way her mother had raised her.
“You’re a good man, Beck,” Alisa said and patted him on the back.
“And a good chef. Want to go tell the others that dinner is ready? I’d hate for the doctor to miss out. These miners look hungrier than Morakkan Glow Snakes coming out of their ten-year hibernation period.”
“That they do. I’ll tell them.”
“Captain?” Mica asked, making Alisa pause before heading to the crew quarters.
“Yes?”
“I heard you’re going to offer Yumi a job.” Mica spread her hand toward Yumi who smiled from the other side of the table. “It sounds like she’s interested.”
“Ah, been talking to Alejandro, have you?” Alisa hadn’t made that invitation official yet, since she was still figuring out her own plans for the future. But anyone who could escape from rapists by getting them high had creative initiative, and if Yumi spent time sampling her own wares, she always did it during the night cycle and in the privacy of her quarters. Alisa did not have a problem with that.
“Briefly,” Mica said. “He disappeared into his cabin to cuddle with that box of his.”
“Yes,” Yumi said, “I would be curious to see the contents of that box someday.”
“The contents are… unique.” Alisa wondered if any of Yumi’s interest in staying on had to do with Alejandro’s orb. Could she feel its presence from across the ship? If anyone would be in tune with that kind of thing, she would. But Alejandro was getting off at Perun. She was sure of that.
Not that it wouldn’t be handy to have a trained surgeon on board. Her hand strayed to the QuickSkin covering the gashes he had treated while she had been piloting them out of the asteroid belt.
“I have no idea what they, or it is though,” Alisa added, since Yumi was looking at her in inquiry, as if she hoped for an in-depth explanation.
“I sense spiritual power emanating from his cabin,” Yumi said.
“Are you sure that’s not his body odor? We’ve all neglected the sanibox the last couple of days.”
“You’re amusing, Captain.”
“I’m glad someone has finally realized that. Yumi, if I can scrounge up some cargo on Perun, I should be able to afford to hire you. Having a science officer might qualify us for more than simple freight hauling.” Alisa had heard of live specimens for labs being shipped and needing someone who could oversee their care. That shouldn’t be hard for a scientist who already tended chickens.
“Thank you, Captain,” Yumi said.
Alisa waved and headed toward the crew quarters to find Alejandro. Surely, his life would be incomplete if he missed out on eating something that had tried to kill the crew.
As she reached the intersection and started around the corner toward the passenger cabins, she halted, spotting Leonidas standing outside the hatchway, talking to Alejandro. He shut his mouth when she appeared. Alejandro leaned out and looked at her. Maybe it was her imagination, but they looked like they’d been caught talking about something illicit. Or at least something that they couldn’t speak of openly.
“Just came to let you two know that Grillmaster Beck’s food is ready,” she said.
“Thank you, Captain,” Alejandro said.
Leonidas nodded once.
They looked at her like they expected her to leave so they could resume talking. She turned and headed toward her cabin, as if she needed to grab something. She didn’t, but maybe she would catch a couple of snatches of their conversation. Leonidas stepped into Alejandro’s cabin, and the hatch shut with a thud.
Alisa frowned down the empty corridor, telling herself that what they chatted about was none of her business. She had come to trust Leonidas, and Alejandro… Well, she didn’t not trust him. He seemed a decent man. But he was on some mission for someone, something that revolved around that orb, and who knew what he might do in order to succeed? She ought to dump him on Perun and forget she had seen anything, but what if some trouble awaited him there, and what if it came his way before he was off her ship? Shouldn’t she know about it ahead of time?
“You’re a snoop, and there’s no justifying it,” she whispered to herself as she headed to NavCom.
Once inside, she shut the hatch, slid into the co-pilot’s seat, and flicked one of a handful of intercom switches, one that connected with Alejandro’s cabin. She muted her end and leaned close to the speaker, h
oping to catch what they were saying. Even with the NavCom hatch shut, the noise from the enthusiastic conversations and occasional claps from the mess made it hard for her to hear.
“I have no experience working with biomechatronics,” Alejandro was saying.
“I have his files,” Leonidas said. “You could learn.”
“Not easily, and if you’ll forgive my self-absorption, that’s not where my interests lie right now.”
“It could be studied on the side. It need not interfere with your mission.”
His mission. What mission?
Alisa leaned closer to the speaker, feeling like a dirty eavesdropper, but she couldn’t help herself. She was curious, both about the orb and about Leonidas and what he wanted from the galaxy.
“Mastering bioengineering isn’t a hobby, my friend,” Alejandro said. “You need someone like Dr. Bartosz, someone who has advanced degrees in medicine and also in engineering. And who has experience working with cyborgs.”
“Dr. Bartosz is dead,” Leonidas said bluntly.
Bartosz, that was the man whose remains had been on the floor in that lab, wasn’t it? Leonidas had mentioned him before.
“He’s the only one I knew of who had those qualifications,” Leonidas added.
“I’m afraid I can’t help you in this manner. Even if the tenets of the sun gods didn’t proclaim it an abomination to manipulate men so, it’s not as if you’re dying. I would try if that were the case, but this is…”
“Important to me,” Leonidas said.
Alisa could hear the quiet plea in his usually stolid voice, and she winced, feeling guilty once again about eavesdropping. As curious as she was, this wasn’t meant for her to hear. She moved her hand toward the switch to turn off the intercom, but froze at Alejandro’s next words.
“It’s not paramount to the revival of the empire,” he said.
Alisa’s breath caught. She had been right. That orb had to do with something huge. Something so huge it could reunite the empire and give them the boost they needed to fight the Alliance again? The emperor’s fall had been the death knell for the empire, but there were rumors that the ten-year-old prince might not have been in the palace when it was destroyed. Alisa did not know if there was any truth to them, but there was always the possibility that loyalists would rally around the boy if he were found.