“What if we put the cuffs back on your brother and parade him off the ship in front of the other crew? We’ll bring him face to face with Celdrake and give his first officer the chance to dig his own grave, so to speak, by letting him gloat. Then the cuffs will drop off and we’ll all get to see the look on Celdrake’s face when he realizes he’s been tricked. In front of his crew and all your boys in uniform, it should make for a dramatic moment.”
Zelup chuckled. “She’s brutal. Maybe we should give her your ship. She’d make a vicious pirate.”
“Fuck it,” Lyk said, getting into the spirit of things. “I’m in. Do you have a pair of cuffs that can be controlled remotely?”
“I think I might have an old pair among my equipment.” Zelup walked over to consult with two of his crewmembers, while Abby approached him.
“You think you’re pretty clever,” he told her, grinning.
“I am very clever,” she retorted. “Why do you say that?”
“Your little plan. You want me to confront Celdrake in front of a crowd so that I don’t kill him with my bare hands.”
Abby’s expression remained neutral, but he now knew her well enough to realize that he was right. He stared her down, and she finally cracked. “Okay, you’re right. I just don’t think it’s the best impression to make, you showing up on your home worldafter not leaving on the best of terms, and the first thing you do is choke to death your former best friend. It’s not a good look for you.”
Lyk chuckled, then pulled her in close and kissed the tip of your nose. “Thanks for looking out for my image, sweetheart.”
“Someone has to,” she said with a laugh.
“Got them,” Zelup said, returning with a pair of electro-cuffs. Lyk held out his hands for his brother to fasten them. “Are you ready for this, bro?”
Lyk could tell that he wasn’t talking about confronting his former first officer. He meant setting foot on Vartik again. “Yeah.” There were many things he wanted to say, many things he should say, but in that moment, the words refused to come.
“You don’t have to say it, brother,” Zelup said, his voice low. “We can read minds, remember?”
Lyk’s eyes widened. Of course. He was back on Vartik, surrounded by a family that could literally peer inside his head at any time. Having been gone from the planet for so long, the defenses that used to be second nature had been gradually forgotten.
He patted his brother’s arm in gratitude. Not only had Zelup understood the complex emotions he was experiencing, but he’d reminded Lyk to put up his mental privacy shields. Focusing his mental energies, he rebuilt the wall in his mind that made it so that his fellow Vartiks wouldn’t be dipping inside his mind.
Lyk turned to Abby and saw that she was taking a deep breath. “They’re going to love you,” he whispered, hoping to dispel her anxiety. She nodded once, but he could tell her nerves remained just under the surface.
“I’ve informed our brothers what’s about to take place and they are ready to provide backup should your pirate crew make any sudden movements.” Zelup looked them over, hands on his hips, then nodded. “Let’s start the show.”
Lyk played his part of prisoner, holding his tongue when Zelup shoved him aggressively as they exited the shuttle. They were on a large landing pad within the capital city. Not far off, he could see the massive royal palace. It was unchanged, still an architectural marvel and symbol of Vartik power. Around him, his brothers’ ships had already landed and disgorged their crews, each of which was currently standing at attention in a line in front of their ships.
Lyk watched as Celdrake came down the short ramp from his cruiser’s hatch, followed by the black-clad crew. Zelup marched Lyk forward, with Ally following behind them. Lyk wished she would have stayed close to Zelup’s crew, but he knew asking her to do so would have been hopeless.
Celdrake’s smile was haughty as he approached them. “Well, well, well. How the mighty have fallen.”
Lyk pursed his lips. He knew the point was to let Celdrake wallow in the turn of events, which meant he had to grin and bear it, but it didn’t mean he was thrilled at the prospect. Still, he couldn’t remain silent, so he growled at his former first mate through gritted teeth. “Traitor.”
“I would only be a traitor to my own destiny if I hadn’t acted. All that time we worked together, and a pretty female comes along and turns your head around. You started making bad decisions, ignored my advice. You showed me exactly how much you valued me.”
Lyk looked the cyborg over. “You turned on me fast enough to make my head spin. Let’s talk about what this is really about. You considered yourself in some kind of sick competition with me. I thought we were friends. Partners. The whole time, you were trying to overtake me, implanting chips, exchanging bone for metal. Maybe you were plotting this mutiny for longer than you let on.”
He could see from Celdrake’s expression that he wasn’t far off. “It was always about the Raven and never about his crew. You got all the glory.”
“And you got more than enough credits to forget all about glory!” Lyk couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How did he never realize how bitter his friend was? How envious? How obsessed with his own fame?
“Glory isn’t for sale. Glory is priceless.”
“I never did it for glory. I did it to take down those who preyed on the weak. Those who exploited others. The profit was just a bonus, and the glory? Well, it didn’t matter.”
Celdrake sneered. “That’s easy for the man with all the glory to say. But it’s okay now. I’m about to be toasted as a hero. And you? Well, you’re on your way to execution.”
At that moment, Lyk gave an almost imperceptible nod, but Zelup was watching. His brother hit the button on the remote and the electric field that looped his wrists disappeared, causing the cuffs to drop off Lyk’s wrists.
Celdrake looked at him, a comical expression of surprise on his face. Lyk took a mental picture of the expression, wanting to remember it forever. “Did you really think my family would consider you a hero for stealing my ship and threatening to sell information about their wormhole? I thought you were smarter than that.”
