CHAPTER 19
Xaviara wiped the palm of her hand on her uniform. She practiced hand-to-hand combat on a regular weekly rotation, but she’d never actually had to use it before. If Lianndra was knowledgeable about viral warfare, wouldn’t they also have trained her in kadyyza martial arts?
Xaviara waved Piotr’s illicit security device near the door. He’d said it was the latest technology out of the fifth sector from a race of aliens the humans had secured relations with recently. Things were still rocky between them and the kadyyza, so it was unlikely Lianndra had any method of counteracting the override.
The door beeped angrily. The light blinked red—Is this going to work?—and then glowed green.
Clutching the chipset in one hand, Xaviara slammed her hand into the door open button.
“What the…” Lianndra jumped up from her display, spewing a string of kadyyza swears the translator failed to understand. On the wall beyond her head was the bank of nodes Xaviara needed.
“In the name of the Sol Alliance Coalition, I order you to stop. I’m placing you under diplomatic arrest. Come with me to the brig immediately.” Xaviara’s voice rang out strong and true.
Lianndra’s face twisted in rage as she backed against the wall. “You can’t stop me. You’re way too late for that. The trincaar is going to die.”
She’s stalling. Any minute, Camlan and Manda would be beamed off the planet. Xaviara couldn’t play it cool here. She had to get the chipset inserted. “Get out of my way!” She leaped forward, reaching for the wall.
Lianndra kicked out, hitting Xaviara in the stomach and reeling her backward.
“Ugh!” came the involuntarily outrush of air from her lungs as she slammed in the wall of the tiny bunk. Xaviara sucked in a breath, seeing red and fighting to push herself forward. “You’re not going to win.”
Lianndra’s purple skin glowed in the dim light of her bunk. Information scrolled past on the display. “You don’t know anything about what I’m doing. I am going to succeed.”
Xaviara slid the chipset into her uniform’s pocket. Leaping forward again, she was ready this time. When Lianndra kicked out, she blocked downward.
Holy OW. She’d only once had a partner this rough, and she’d sworn not to spar with him again. Maybe that was a poor decision—she definitely wasn’t ready for the pain of real combat. Her forearm smarted with the force of the blow.
Lifting her other arm, she attempted a downward swing, sloppy and inept, but it was only a ruse. Lianndra blocked it, allowing Xaviara the opportunity to punch her right in the solar plexus.
Lianndra dropped like a rock.
Xaviara plunged her hand into the pocket and yanked out the chipset. Before she could insert it, Lianndra grabbed her by the ankle and twisted.
Falling, Xaviara lost hold of the chipset. It went spinning onto the desk.
Lianndra climbed on top of her, lilac lips lifted into a sneer. She wrapped her hands around Xaviara’s neck and squeezed. “Let me guess. Nicholen has finally decided to put his cock to use.”
The room started to fade.
No way she’s going to win!
Xaviara slammed her arms up into Lianndra’s as hard as she could. Something popped as Lianndra’s arms came loose, and Lianndra let out a screaming wail. “My fucking arm! You broke my fucking—”
Xaviara kicked her off, leapt to her feet, grabbed the chipset, and slammed it into the bank.
“Hell yes!” came Piotr’s voice in her link. Through the haze of pain and adrenaline, Xaviara wondered how he’d linked the two of them without her knowledge.
A voice came from the door. “Verrytto Lianndra, you are under arrest by the Imdali Royal Guard.” It was Nicholen’s second-in-command Thoxxin. “You will be sentenced and tried by the Royal Court.” He stepped inside, hauling a wailing Lianndra to her feet. “You have the right to representation after your initial interrogation. You have the right to withhold statement, but…”
As the guard continued to read Lianndra her rights, Xaviara heaved a giant breath. “Piotr, is it safe?”
“One sec,” he said. “Just another… moment… Yes! Go!”
She pressed the link behind her ear. “Open comm to Nicholen: Commence matter transmission. The virus has been neutralized. Get them off that horrible planet!”
* * *
Nicholen was halfway to Lianndra’s bunk when Xaviara’s voice came through. “What happened?”
“Your guard is here. Thoxxin, I think?” she said. “He’s arresting her.”
Thoxxin’s voice sounded distant, along with the Lianndra’s wails. “I have Eemon already in the brig, sir. He was aiding and abetting her.”
Relief flooded through him. Nicholen turned around to sprint back the direction he came. Bursting into the mattrans room, he shouted, “Go, Hazel, go!”
Hazel swiped a hand left, then right, then pinched together in the gesture to initiate the transmission. “They’re still not high enough. There’s still a chance we won’t get them out of there.”
“What?”
“I can’t yet. They’re still climbing.” She flicked a finger and a pixelated image of Camlan and Manda appeared in the air. The white, shimmering dots hung between them. The two were strapped into climbing gear and making their way up thick vines with carabiners. “She’s almost there, but it’ll take him a few minutes longer.”
“What the hell is that?” Nicholen said.
A gigantic tentacle was reaching up through the air toward the real trincaar.
“Must be the indigenous life form Samantha was talking about.” Hazel’s hands stayed poised in the air. “They lost their communication device moments ago.”
“How?”
“Slipped out of Camlan’s hands.”
Fucking idiot. But he couldn’t fault the man, who was apparently hanging over a cavern with some sort of creature after them. Nicholen pressed his fingernails into the palm of his hand. The tentacle wavered in the air, still some meters from the two.
“She’s almost there,” said Hazel. “99.27%. She’s almost—”
“Safety override to 99.25% authorized by Trincaar Valkkh Camlan,” shouted Nicholen.
The ship beeped confirmation, and Hazel pinched her fingers together. They better have truly neutralized that fucking virus. Manda’s dots faded, and he stared at the landing pad. Just another moment… just another moment… As Manda disappeared from the display completely, she materialized on the pad, arm outstretched.
“Oof!” she grunted as she fell half a meter onto the floor.
“Sorry, ma’am, had to make sure you would end up above the pad.”
She leapt to her feet. “We have to extract Camlan!”
Nicholen stepped forward. “I’ve lowered the safety protocols to—”
“No time to wait for safety protocols! There’s something attacking him. You have to get him out of there!”
Hazel said, “He’s dropping.”
Nicholen whirled.
“Dropping?” shouted Manda. “Not dropping, just… lowering. There’s a thing in the canyon behind him. It’s got hold of him!”
The pixelated image showed the tentacle wrapped around his leg. Forebears, what the fuck do I do? Camlan seemed to be holding a knife, his leg was extended downward, and he was struggling to reach it.
“He’s losing centimeters of altitude,” Hazel’s voice was calm. “98.5% safety… 98.4% safety…”
“He’ll make it,” said Nicholen. Wouldn’t he? “Just wait, we can’t—”
“Just pull him out of there! Safety override to 95% authorized by Lead Manda Aurellia!”
The computer beeped to acknowledge her command, and Nicholen leapt toward the controls before Hazel could react. He pinched his fingers together himself, relieved he was finally doing something.
On the display, Camlan lunged downward, his outline visibly struggling as he hacked at the creature. With one last stab, his vine rocketed upward—he’d hacked off the tentacle, and the momentum was carrying him upward.
At the apex, the mattrans took hold. And then, inside the room, Camlan was falling to the floor, a brown tentacle wrapped around his leg, dripping green slime and smelling like days-old rotten fruit.
“Holy fuck, old friend.” Nicholen pressed a hand to his nose. “That reeks.”
“So glad to be home,” moaned Camlan from the floor.
Manda ran over, threw her arms around him, and pressed her mouth to his in a passionate kiss that impressed even Nicholen.