CHAPTER 18
Xaviara and Piotr sat side-by-side in his bunk. She was uncomfortable being in his personal space, especially given their long-time rivalry, but she shoved it aside for the sake of the mission. Piotr didn’t look much happier about her being there. He’d stuffed an armload of dirty clothes into the laundry chute to clear a seat on the second, tiny stool next to his computer. She sat gingerly on the edge.
As he opened up his display, he promised, “No more naked asses.”
His smile cut the tension, and she laughed.
“I’m logged into the mainframe as an administrator profile I created myself,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do to prevent whatever Lianndra is doing before she does it because I don’t know what she’s going to try. I’ve repurposed a daemon that should be sophisticated enough to detect her, and I can unleash another one to reverse her commands.”
The ship’s hum changed—a slight increase in volume, although barely noticeable if Xaviara had been going about her daily routine. They must be beginning their descent. Piotr would need to act fast.
“Are you using the ship’s daemons?”
“Of course not. They’re not specialized enough for that. I have about a dozen I always put into circulation on whatever ship or station I’m on.”
Xaviara blinked. “Why would you do that?”
“It’s one of those things members of Incongruous always do. Anyway, I like to know things.” His fingers were flying across the projected keyboard, and black text scrolled over the display. She caught a few familiar lines, but most were far beyond her knowledge. This wasn’t something they would have learned about in her classes.
“Did you know Lianndra was sabotaging the mission?”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t something I was looking out for. My daemons are more social in nature.”
Does he know about Nicholen and my relationship? “Social how?”
“I won’t tell anyone.” His voice was quiet.
She gasped. “You didn’t watch us—”
“No. Hetero relationships aren’t my thing, in the first case, and in the second, I’m a gossip, not a perv.”
She forced a chuckle. “But you knew that we… ?”
“When it was heading that way, I shut down the feed. Although I can’t say I wasn’t curious about his…” He gave her a sidelong glance and lifted an eyebrow.
“Piotr!”
“Tell me it’s at least impressive?”
She made a strangled sort of noise, one part incredulity and one part amusement, but she couldn’t keep from grinning. He was actually quite funny now that she was getting to know him. And the reminder of what had gone on between herself and Nicholen made a delicious warmth flood between her legs.
“Anyway, I haven’t been spying on people any more than a few seconds this trip.” His expression soured. “That’s why I didn’t know about Lianndra’s treachery. Although she was probably smart enough to keep it hidden from the feeds. If she had to talk to someone, she would have shut down the audvid. I’m getting a little complacent lately. Nothing new ever happens, just secret relationships and run-of-the-mill kinks. The most interesting thing lately is that people download audvids off the neural net, store them to their links, and watch them in their bunks. It’s really quite boring.”
“Do I want to know?”
“Not really, but it’s mostly just clown porn.”
She wasn’t sure if he was serious or not, but she laughed anyway.
The ship’s hum grew stronger again. They would now be settling into a geosynchronous orbit in the mesosphere near to the pickup location.
“If you’re such a brilliant hacker, why did you decide on the ambassador track instead of joining one of those high-paying security firms?” There was a lot more money in the private sector than in diplomacy. A lot more.
He was typing away, swiping and looking through three screens at once. She thought he might not answer, but then he said, “Because of my brother.”
Startled, she folded her hands in her lap.
“I was young when he was killed. He was fifteen years older than me. I wanted to do something to prevent it from ever happening to someone else’s brother, and diplomacy seemed the way to go.”
“You’re not angry at the kadyyza?”
He punched a couple more buttons. “I was for a long time. But I’m not anymore. Deciding to apply for this job was the final step in healing.”
She felt a little guilty for being such a thorn in his side—although he had, when all was said and done, started it.
He pointed to something on the screen. “Here. My daemon found something.”
“What is it?”
“I need a moment.” He typed away as lines of information flew across the screen. It was dizzying, and Xaviara could make neither heads nor tails of it.
“Uh-oh,” he said. “They’ve made contact with Camlan and Manda. They’re about to start the matter transmission. But…”
“But what?” Xaviara leaned forward.
“Found it! Lianndra has inserted a virus into the system that’ll scramble their signal. On the bridge, they won’t know anything is wrong. We’ll pick them up, but they’ll never materialize.”
Xaviara’s heart raced. That would mean she’d never see Manda again. Her friend would just vanish. “Can you stop it?”
“I’ll try, but the best way to stop Lianndra is at the point of location.”
“But we don’t know where she is.”
“I do now.”
“You found her?”
“Yep.” He looked grim. “She’s in her bunk.”
How was that possible? Realization struck her. “The GK must have someone on Nicholen’s security team!”
“Yes. We don’t have a moment to lose.”
Xaviara ran out the door.
* * *
The sound of the comm beeping cut through the low hum of the bridge.
“It’s them!” exclaimed Nicholen. Thank the forebears. I never thought I’d be so grateful to hear that sound in all my life.
“Lead ship, this is anchor ship KH-159,” responded Samantha. “We read your distress call. Stand by for extraction. Matter transmission initiation protocol commencing.”
“I’m going to the mattrans room.” Nicholen leapt to his feet and hurried out of the bridge. “You’ve got this under control?”
“Yes,” answered Samantha as the door slid shut on Nicholen.
He ran down the hallway, loping into long strides. I’m going to see that fucking asshole soon. Now that Camlan was about to be rescued, Nicholen was furious with him. Making me take his place as trincaar. It should have been me down there.
He, Camlan, and the trincaarit were going to have a good, long discussion after this. There might be shouting. No, no “might” about it. There will definitely be shouting.
Hurrying through the door of the mattrans room, Nicholen prepared to throw his arms around his liege and long-time friend. Instead, human Engineering Officer Hazel stood behind the tri-d control bank, hands poised in the air. The landing pad was devoid of anyone.
“Where are they?” he demanded.
“I’m waiting for them to get into position,” responded the older woman.
“I thought they were in position.”
Her eyes snapped to his. She might be a junior staff member—someone who’d joined the Coalition in her late fifties, if he remembered her dossier correctly—but she was still three decades his senior. He’d seen that look on his own Nana’s face before. He was about to get a tongue lashing, even though she had to know he was supposedly a prince.
“My apologies,” he hurried out the words. “Please continue with your duties.”
She sniffed and turned back to the display. “We’re on open comm to the bridge. Samantha has instructed them to seek higher ground. We’re unable to cut through the magnetic field to extract them at their current altitude.”
“Fuck.” At Hazel’s look, Nicholen wished he’d chosen a less translatable swear.
Nicholen’s link beeped with Xaviara’s chime, and he pressed behind his ear. “Go ahead.”
“We found Lianndra!” Thank the forebears. “She’s in her room. One of your security team must have sneaked her back in.”
“Moklonish jixxis!” he swore. This was not good at all. He turned toward the door, ready to storm through the ship and throw every one of his personnel into the brig. Who could it be? Eemon? Kalliph? It couldn’t possibly be Thoxxin, his second-in-command, could it?
But Xaviara wasn’t done. “She’s messing about with the mattrans. She’s inserted a virus into the system that will allow the beam to initiate, but they’ll never make it to the ship. She’ll scatter their molecules across the ocean instead, and we’ll never be able to get them back.”
Nicholen’s heart nearly stopped beating. “Are you able to stop it?”
“Piotr’s trying, but he says she was given advanced training by the Geshhina Kadyyza. Her daemons are evading his.”
“Is he going to be successful?”
“I don’t know, but I’m at her bunk right now.”
“What? It’s too dangerous!”
“I’m about to break in with a physical chipset. I have to insert it into her bank, and it’ll halt her virus. It’s the only way for sure to stop her. You have to hold off the mattrans until you get the all clear from me.”
“Wait for me, Xaviara!”
But her link beeped to sever the connection.
Before he ran out the door, he addressed Hazel. “You have to wait. There’s a virus that will disrupt the mattrans.”
Hazel nodded. Samantha’s voice came over the comm. “We have another problem. They’re still not high enough, and indigenous life forms on the planet are becoming aggressive. We need to get them out as soon as possible.”
“Fuck!” shouted Nicholen, and this time he didn’t feel guilty from Hazel’s look of disapproval.
“They’re still climbing,” she said, “but they’re only within the 95% safety range. Safety procedures won’t let me extract them until 99.95%.”
He considered overriding the protocols, but the safety ranges existed for a reason. “Keep tabs on them. The second the levels are within tolerance, be ready to get them the fuck out of there.”
Without waiting for acknowledgment, he raced out the door toward the kadyyza quarters.