“The Ulinial travel through space on their colony ships, hiding from those who would harm us or seek to enslave us. I learned how to repair things at a very young age; a lot of us do, because there is always something that needs fixing on ships that ancient.” Some of those memories were very fond: sitting at my father’s knee as he cleaned air scrubbers and explained the task; taking apart all kinds of appliances and machines with my mom, the parts spread out on our table and music filling the air.
“Sometimes a ship gets so crowded we would pool together all our funds to buy a ship for a group of young couples to split off. That happened twice while I was a kid, and it was an amazing celebration. And sometimes, we’d getnews that a colony ship had been lost, taken by slavers, or destroyed.” I had been shielded from that kind of news, but I’d sensed it anyway, and learned to place it when I got older. As passive as most of my people were, we were considered ideal household slaves by the less morally inclined of the quadrant. It was very common for the majority of slaves in a household to be of my kind.
Thatcher swore, as if he already knew exactly where my story was headed. “Am I doing this right?” he demanded gruffly, pointing at the wires dangling from the open panel. I went up to the force field that blocked me from doing this myself. Squinting, I could just make out the various colors of the thin cables I’d asked him to cut, strip, and attach to his comm. I nodded, and then I gave him a thumbs-up, but that only made him glare.
Such a grump, or maybe he just saw straight through the false cheer. Straight to the little girl I’d been when my world had come tumbling down around me. “Krektar slavers took the colony ship when I was twelve. I escaped detection by hiding in a maintenance shaft for three days, then got into Yengar Space Station via an airlock I had override codes for. I’ve worked on spaceships ever since.” That was the truth. I hadn’t been one of those lucky enough to be found and adopted by another Ulinial ship, but I’d been scrappy enough to stay safe and work for my food and bed.
“It felt like being on the run, like being a wanted criminal. I didn’t stop running until I found myself hired by theVarakartoom. Asmoded was quite impressed that I managed to fix their shuttle.” I did not mention that I’d fixed that shuttle to try to escape, and Aramon and Solear had caught me. TheVarakartoom’s crew had boardedthe pirate vessel I had been unlucky enough to be working on to retrieve the stolen cargo they’d been hired to find. Five years wasn’t long to some, but it had felt like I’d caught up on a lifetime of safety while living on this ship. Untouchable, able to sleep deeply each night, and valued for my skills.
“I’d do anything for theVarakartoom,” I sighed, overwhelmed with the intensity of that sentiment. Then I eyed the hole leading into the cell next to mine. Enough was enough; it was done tricking us. Today was the day I was going to put an end to that thing. Behind me, Thatcher whispered, “Me too,” almost too soft to hear, but I definitely heard it when he swore he’d do anything for me, too.
“Come here. Enough of this force field. Let me scan you when you do that trick, and I can perhaps mimic it with my portable shield.” Thatcher came immediately, sticking out his hand and jamming it into the force field before I was even ready with my scanner. I didn’t realize it hurt him until after I was done, when he yanked his arm back and shook it like it tingled. “Thatch! I’m so sorry, I didn’t…” He shot me a glare that made me snap my mouth shut. It even tempted me to snap back at him, overriding the compassion from moments ago. “You could have said it hurts.”
“If that mattered to me, I would have. Now work your magic.” He pointed at the shield generator on my belt. It was tiny, portable, and my own design. If I could make it smaller and lower its power requirements, that would be my next adaptation to all the armor suits the crew of theVarakartoomwore. Perhaps I’d have Flack test it first, as payment for getting me a family book according to Ulinial tradition.
Obeying Thatcher’s demand, I worked on my little generator to make it output the exact same frequenciesThatcher’s skin had generated on its own. It took a moment, and it definitely felt like walking into resistance when I got it to work, but itworked. Suddenly, I was standing in the main area of the brig, where a table and chair stood in case a guard had to be stationed. I could move freely, and now I could also see into the cell the entity had disappeared into.
I froze, staring in shock at the collapsed body of the human male. He lay like a pile of tangled limbs, his head nearly crushed beneath his own awkwardly fallen torso. There was absolutely no sign of the entity itself—unless you looked closer and saw hints of black curl beneath the human’s skin, particularly along the back of his exposed neck, near the spine where all those sensitive nerves ran. At least a portion of the entity had gone into the human, but was it all of it? I intended to find out.
“You finish the comm situation,” I said to Thatcher, turning away from the sight. “I will free the crew and deal with that thing,” I added, pointing at the collapsed human. He was still behind a force field, trapped in the cell, but if Thatcher could get out, perhaps so could he.
Thatcher shot me a grin, and his hand found my braid at the base of my neck. “I like it when you get bossy, Ysa.” Then he kissed me.
Chapter 23
Thatcher
My Ysa worked on the cables and circuits she’d freed from behind the wall, her small hands working magic with the tools she’d brought. All I had to do was amplify the signal of my comm to reach the others, and I was bungling that with my thick fingers. She was hunched low over a circuit right now, soldering something in place and wriggling her ass back and forth. She probably had no clue what an enticing picture she made when she worked.
“Thatcher, is that you? Come in, please!” A voice suddenly crackled over my comm line, so badly warped it was hard to tell who it was. Mitnick, most likely. If anyone knew how to get his own comm working, it was him. That man lived for information.He wasn’t an engineer, but he knew everything there was to know about programming these machines.
“Reading you, Mitnick,” I said, and then I held my comm out to Ysa. She’d shot to her feet when the comm started working, and now frowned at the lack of a visual and the tangle of badly connected wires I’d created. I shrugged at her. It wasn’t my fault it was a mess; Idefinitelywasn’t an engineer. “What’s your status? We have the entity and the Shadow Unit soldier trapped, but we’ve not yet regained control of the ship.”
The line crackled. “We’ve been unable to reach you for the past thirty minutes. Everyone else is fine. TheVagabondis on its way, but we’ve sped up and left the system.” I shared a look with Ysa. So she was right; she’d sensed the change in the engine and known we’d sped up. It was also, at last, a clue to what the entity wanted, and I had a feeling letting it have that was a very bad idea.
Ysa had done something to the cables I’d attached, and now the line was much clearer. It wasn’t Mitnick but the captain who answered, and I realized they were probably still on the bridge, locked out of their consoles—unable to change the course of the ship, with the bulkheads also blocking them from reaching the engine room and manually shutting things down. It was a very cleverly designed trap, and I feared we hadn’t seen the full extent of it yet. It had lured Ysa here, and me. Though I suspected the force field and the acid had been meant to fully disable us, perhaps even kill us, we were still here.
“Thatcher, Ysa’s with you?” Asmoded asked, and I nodded before realizing he could not see that, then confirming it out loud. “We believe the entity wants to return to the waterworld it came from. It’s not far, and that is our current heading. We’re thinking we should let it. Perhaps it will leave when it gets back home.”I instantly knew that was wishful thinking, or perhaps simply misguided. The captain had not personally tangled with the entity the way I had. He had not been in its presence and sensed the fury, the evil, the desire to kill. All that rage had been directed at my Ysa, and for that, I didn’t even want to let it off that easy. I wanted it to pay.
“I wouldn’t do that, Captain,” Ysa said. She shuffled even closer, and I shifted to curl my body around her back and offer the protection she was obviously in search of. I did not like having that dead or passed-out Shadow Unit soldier lying beyond a force field behind us, but I’d know the moment it stirred. Ysa was very on edge, and she kept glancing over her shoulder to check. As she hurried to explain her statement to the Captain, she appeared to fear the entity overhearing her and taking offense. I could see why, but I did not think it could be any more eager to kill her than it already was.
“I think it’s been learning all this time—about us, about our systems, and about the Zeta Quadrant. I know it accessed our databases; it’s been in every single system I can think of. If we let it get back to the water world… I fear what it will do. We need to make sure that whatever this thing is, the rest of it stays contained on the planet, and this scout never returns with its knowledge. That’s what I think.” Ysa was breathing hard as she finished speaking, full of passion and worry. She wasn’t just afraid of what might happen to the ship and the crew she considered family. She feared for the rest of the quadrant, too.
My motivations were not nearly so noble, but they aligned, so I cast my vote in with hers. “I agree, Ysa. We cannot let this entity be united with the others on that planet. They’d never let theVarakartoomgo.” I glanced at the Shadow Unit soldier, slowly stirring on the floor of the cell, and knew instantly that’s what they’d do to all of us. Make us hosts, control our bodies like puppets so they could go out and conquer the galaxy. Devour it. “There’s a reason they put a warning label on that planet.”
The line was quiet for a moment, but it was much clearer now that Ysa had touched the connections with her clever hands. Then Asmoded sighed. “Very well. I will continue to work on regaining control of the systems. If you have them contained, find a way to kill that thing, permanently, this time.” That was easier said than done, but it was exactly what I planned. That human was slowly stirring, and I knew that meant I had to get ready for a fight.
The Sineater was the last to get his say on that call, though hehadto be elsewhere on the ship. The Captain had sent him to find the entity when it first popped back up on the sensors. A trap, a trick, obviously. “This is my mess too, Asmoded. I let that thing hitch a ride onto theVarakartoom. If need be, I’ll cut through every single bulkhead to get to it, and then I’ll destroy it.” I did not doubt that he would be able to do exactly as he said, but Ysa’s horrified expression made me want to object instantly. Thankfully, the Captain did too.
The call ended there, but from the look in Ysa’s eyes, I knew it was much more dire than the captain realized. We still didn’t know if the entity had fully gone into the soldier, or if killing him would be enough. The Sineaterwould only stand down for so long, and that I fully understood. The male might be the one thing capable of actually killing the creature, and I had no doubt that was why he’d been lured across the ship and locked behind bulkheads. I’d have to make up for the lack and kill it myself, there had to be a weak spot.
The force field behind us suddenly fizzled out. Ysa and I both turned to look, but my reflexes were faster. I leaped in front of her, arms spread wide, and yelled at her to engage her personal shield again. The laser rifle was nearly out of charge, but I fired it until it gave out, even as the soldier just kept coming. Part of his face was covered in black stuff, wrapped around his eye, over his nose, and the corner of his mouth. The rest of him appeared exactly as before, except my laser fire did not seem to penetrate. It tore through his clothing, but did nothing else.
“Whatever you plan, you will fail!” the soldier said, his mouth moving and his eyes rolling back into his head. He stepped out of the cell with an awkward, stumbling gait, but the way he held his knives was anything but weak. “I am in control now, and soon I will control all of you.” Not on my watch. Perhaps the creature didn’t know yet that being human made it vulnerable. The one the Sineater had killed had been down on Xio, not on the ship. I hoped so, because I was going to tear him apart with my bare hands if needed.
“Oh yeah?” I taunted. “Prove it!” Then we charged each other. Fire sizzled through my veins, my heart thumping wildly and my processor feeding me details at high speed. Duck, turn, raise my fist, use that opening. There was nothing ungainly or slow about how the human-meshed entity moved. Perhaps this was because the soldier burieddeep within liked fighting; their actions were one. When we clashed, it was a true challenge, and we were so evenly matched it felt impossible to tell who would win. I would—there was no other option—because if I failed, it would kill Ysa next. That I would never allow.
I had only one weakness as we fought: I kept myself between Ysa and the creature. Not once did I allow it to turn us so that Ysa was exposed, even if that meant getting sliced by one of its knives. My armor held off most of it, but not all. With its nano-enhanced speed and strength, some of those strikes were deep. The scent of blood filled the air, but most overpowering was Ysa’s fear. Each second that passed was like a knife to the gut; it was wrong. I’d stop this, now.
