She wondered whether Kordolians were as good at keeping promises as they were at killing.
“I’m sure you haven’t forgotten the penalty for insubordination, Sergeant.” The female agent put on her datalenses as the car’s door slid open. She dismissed Arin with a small tilt of her chin. “We know everything about your military history, Varga. Just make sure you do as we say, or you’ll end up spending the next decade assigned to an even more remote mining station.”
Arin didn’t bother to tell the agents that shelikedbeing in space.
CHAPTER FOUR
Arin jolted awake, dragged out of her slumber by the incessant bleeping of her link-band. After the agents had dropped her at her quarters, she’d stolen an indulgent hour of sleep. Space-lag was a very real thing.
She brought up the holo-display, but she didn’t recognize the caller.Unknown, it said.
Orange light pierced the darkness of her room through a crack in the blinds. The sun was setting across the Pacific.
“Varga,” she snapped, half-expecting the call to be from some Federation suit.
“Sergeant, you gotta help us!” Static crackled through the line. There was no holo-image of the caller, which was a bit strange.
“Riana?” She recognized the voice. “What’s going on? I thought the Federation had put a network blackout on theHendrix II. Is everything all right, Private?”
“It’s all gone to shit,” her junior whispered, terror creeping into her voice. “I’m calling you from a fixed satellite line in the communications room. That’s why there’s no picture. You gotta get us out of here, Sergeant Varga. They’re going to kill us.” Riana’s breathing was thick and heavy, betraying herrising panic. “I don’t know what you have to do to convince those Federation suits to give the Kordolians what they want, but if this goes on for much longer, they’re gonna end up killing us all.”
“Take a deep breath, Private,” Arin said slowly. “And tell me now, what exactly is going on?”
The peacekeeper paused, and Arin heard mutterings in the background. Riana cleared her throat. “There was a plan,” she whispered. “Some of the guys found a weapons stash in the lower entry bay. They followed one of the Kordolians down into the cargo hold. They thought they could take him because he was on his own, and they’d all managed to get their hands on bolt-guns and even an old-fashioned atomic EI rocket launcher.”
Arin groaned, putting her head into her hands.
“None of them returned,” Riana continued in a flat voice. “Except for Harris.”
“Harris?” It didn’t surprise Arin that he was amongst those who’d tried to attack the Kordolians. She’d always had difficulty keeping him in line, and lately, he seemed to have developed a bit of aSpikeaddiction. The stimulant was making some of her soldiers a bit too aggressive, almost borderline delusional, even though the manufacturer claimed it had no side effects.
“Well, apartof Harris came back,” Riana said, and there was something in her tone that sent a chill down Arin’s spine.
“What do you mean, Private? Spell it out.”
“The Kordolian came back with Harris’ severed head. Threw it at our feet and told us that if we tried anything like that again, we’d all end up like that. Then he walked out of there like it was no big deal, even though he’d just taken downsevenof our guys. They’re fucking savages, Sergeant, and we’re helpless against them. We need to get off this freighter. I don’t care if they’re good at killing Xargek. I want out. Why aren’t the Federation sending a rescue crew already?” Riana’swords were becoming jumbled. She sounded as if she was on the verge of tears.
Arin went still, a horrible coldness seeping through her. Her people had been killed. Seven of them, if Riana was to be believed.
But what had they expected? These were Kordolians, after all.
Arin cursed herself for being naive. She cursed herself for being delusional enough to think that the Kordolians might actually be reasonable. She cursed her men for going after a lone Kordolian warrior and thinking they could handle business. Delusional idiots. They’d all seen the way the Kordolians had fought the Xargek in the docking bay on Fortuna Tau. How was any human supposed to fight againstthat?
She’d warned them not to go down that path.
Stupid fucking idiots. And now they were dead.
“Riana,” she said, injecting gentleness into her voice. “I want you to take a deep breath and calm down. Think. The Kordolians took us off Fortuna Tau. They stopped the Xargek from annihilating us. They could have just left us there to die, but they didn’t.”
“And now they’re using our lives as a bargaining chip.”
In a way, Riana was right. The situation was delicate and becoming more and more complicated by the day.
There were close to three thousand rescued souls being held hostage on theHendrix II, and thanks to a certain mechanic’s bright idea to broadcast their plight to the world, everyone on Earth knew it. Before the Network blackout had been enforced, the survivors on board the freighter had communicated with their friends, family, and contacts on Earth. The news had spread like wildfire.
The public wanted the survivors of the Fortuna Tau disaster safely back on Earth. And so the Federation wasn’t going to try anything rash, like send in rescue crews, until they knew exactly what they were dealing with.
“Riana,” Arin said gently, “hold tight. Harris and the others died because they attacked the Kordolians. Whatever you and the others do, don’t make enemies of them. They won’t hurt you if you leave them alone. I’ll be back there as soon as I can.”
