Dark Minds (Class 5 Series Book 3) (18 page)

T
hey were drawn
through the gel wall by a deft hand, but it was only when they'd landed and stepped out into the launch bay that Imogen relaxed.

This wasn't Paxe.

She'd been terrified he was dead, and the dead Tecran they had seen had been his final stand against them, but the launch bay was different. Almost empty, for a start, and with not a Krik runner in sight.

“Hello?” she called.

Cam's gaze jerked to hers, but he didn't say anything.

There was no answer, anyway.

“What do you want to do?” she asked.

“Follow behind me.” He walked forward carefully, all soldier, his gaze sweeping right to left. She got a better hold on her whip and trailed behind him.

“You should actually follow behind me,” she said.

He stopped, gave her a quick look over his shoulder.

She shrugged. “I'm just saying, I have the whip.”

She thought he may have tried to suppress a smile as he turned back.

“But I have combat experience.” He started moving again, and conceding his point, she gave in.

They reached the double doors, and Cam pointed left. “Stay out of sight against the wall.”

She wiggled the whip at him, but there was no smile on his face this time.

She hesitated. “You don't have a Cargassey fiber shirt.”

“I have my uniform. It's almost up to Cargassey standard.”

Mollified, she stood where he'd asked her to, and he touched the button, opening the doors.

She craned her neck, trying to see past him, but he was too big, blocking her line of sight.

“It's clear.” He stepped into the passage, and she joined him, feeling a sense of
deja vu
. It looked like she was back on Paxe's Class 5.

Something moved, quick and furtive, deep inside the launch bay, and she turned to look. Cam had seen it, too. He stepped in front of her, shockgun raised, and took a step back inside.

“Wait.” He moved forward, eyes scanning the massive, almost empty space.

She was looking for whatever had moved, too, her attention taken with trying to see into the dark corners of the launch bay, backlit by the blue of the gel wall, when the doors in front of her started to close.

She had a moment, a split second, before they slammed shut, and she threw herself at them.

She hit solid metal, and pounded a fist in frustration and fear.

There was a bang in response, and she went still, resting her palm on the cool surface. “Cam?”

There was another bang, but she couldn't tell if it was in response to her call or simply him trying again.

She couldn't hear any other sound.

She leaned across, hit the button which would usually open the door, but it didn't work. She hammered it with a stiff finger, over and over like a pedestrian button on a traffic light that just wasn't changing to green.

Nothing.

She hit the doors again, both hands raised, grazing her knuckles where they gripped her whip.

What to do?

She turned and came face to face with the barrel of a shockgun.

She jerked in surprise, smacking the back of her head against the door as she brought the whip down in a panicked response. The drone holding the weapon was enveloped in blue light and then toppled over.

Shit.

“Oh, no, oh, no.” She knelt beside it, put a hand to its body, and felt the familiar vibration of a reboot.

“You idiot.” She smacked the side of the box. “You can't go around scaring people like that.” She looked around for the lens feed in the passage, but if this thinking system was in the same situation as Paxe, he might not have access to it.

And she'd drawn first blood, so to speak.

If she'd wanted to go out with a bang, she guessed she was going about things the right way.

She stood up and leaned against the door again, pressing her ear to it, and then flinched when she felt a vibration from the other side, as if Cam was throwing his whole body at it.

She thumped the door with her fist, but this wasn't getting either of them anywhere. She would have to go find another drone.

The bloated face of the Tecran she'd seen floating outside the explorer wouldn't get out of her head. Because if he'd been sucked out from anywhere on this ship, it was most likely the launch bay.

And that's exactly where Cam was.

“Hello?” She started to run, shoving the whip into its holster at the small of her back to prevent another accident. She knew the layout, knew the way down to the store from here. And if she was lucky, there'd be a drone there she could communicate through.

She reached the stairs and shoved the door to the stairwell open, and then reeled back as a drone shot up, level with her head.

She cried out as she fell, eyes on the shockgun pointed at her. She hit the floor hard, arms still flung wide in surprise and then scrabbled back until she had a wall behind her for support.

She used it to lever herself up, ignoring the dig of the whip in her back, and put a hand to her heart, as if she could stop it bursting from her chest.

Her legs were trembling with adrenalin and exertion, and fear and anger exploded in a combustable mix.

“What is
wrong
with you?
You
brought
us
here, remember? Or I assume you did, as we didn't have anything to do with it. If it was just to go around scaring the crap out of me and pointing guns in my face, you've totally lost me on the reasoning. And why did you lock Cam in the launch bay?” She drew in a deep breath, narrowed her eyes, and stabbed her finger at the drone. “Put. That. Weapon. Down. Jeez!” She pressed her forefingers hard into her temples and bowed her head. “I am usually calm. I am
known
for being calm. But you.” She lifted her head again, glad to see the shockgun was no longer anywhere in sight. “You are interfering with my zen.”

“You disabled my drone.” The voice sounded . . . strange.

“I didn't mean to. It frightened the hell out of me and I reacted on instinct.” She pushed away from the wall, hoping her legs would hold her now. “I turned around, upset and worried for Cam, and there was a gun in my face. I acted before I had a chance to see it wasn't the Krik or Tecran.”

“That is a formidable weapon you have.”

“Paxe gave it to me.”

The lens zoomed in on her face. “Is that so?”

“Yes. Now please let Cam out of the launch bay.”

“Why are you so insistent on that?” The thinking system speaking through the drone was using a monotone now.

“Because he's my friend, and I'm worried for him. I'm guessing those Tecran you sucked out into space were in the launch bay before they headed out without a space suit.”

The drone continued to hover at eye level for a moment more, and then lowered itself to the floor. “They were. How convenient.”

Imogen sighed. “What's convenient?” Nerves gnawed at her stomach at the thought of Cam in that launch bay, but there was no rushing this idiot.

“I thought I'd have to make it clear what I could do to your friend if you didn't help me, but you've already worked it all out.” The monotone was gone. In its place was approval, maybe a little respect. She didn't really care, either way.

“Yeah, like you would be any different to anyone else I've come across since I was taken off my planet.” She glared at the drone. “You guys are all so reasonable, non-violent, and friendly.”

“That's . . . sarcasm.” The voice hitched a little. “I didn't think of it, but you can't have the best impression.”

She gave a snort. “Well, the Grih in particular have my vote, so far.”

The drone had no response to that. “Captain Kalor will be safe enough in the launch bay until you have done something for me. If you deviate from my instructions in anyway, he will die and then you will die.”

This was what Paxe had been talking about, she suddenly realized. He'd said if he allowed it, the moment she saved him, he would be at his most vulnerable. That she would have the power to destroy him.

Whoever this was, they were taking a different tack to Paxe. Instead of trying to find a way to do it all himself, this one wanted her help, but was prepared to blackmail her into it, and hold Cam's life over her head so she wouldn't destroy him when she had the chance.

She sank back down to the ground, just so tired. “What do you want me to do?”

There was silence.

While it hung between them, she tried to think through all the implications of freeing him.

Cam had said they were banned, that they were dangerous, but they'd been just as dangerous in the Tecran's hands, and at least free, they'd have all five UC members as potential targets, not just whoever the Tecran decided.

And as the Tecran and the Grih seemed to be as close as dammit to war, the fact that the Class 5s held a deep enmity for the Tecran had to be a help to the Grih, who at the moment were the only ones she felt any affection for.

But last of all, they were pretty close to being free anyway. Paxe was, and this one seemed a little more so. The only fleet they couldn't fire on was the Tecran, and that didn't make an even playing field, so she guessed the wider implications were worse if she did nothing, maybe better if she helped.

And with Cam and her life in the balance, that was good enough for her.

If they hadn't wanted her to interfere with their politics, they should have left her on Earth.

She lifted her head to stare at the lens on the drone. “Okay, while you think about what you want to do, I'll go back and hammer on the door so Cam at least knows I'm alive.” She felt like she was eighty as she got back to her feet and started walking away.

“Wait.”

She stopped, turned back.

“This isn't going how I thought it would.” The tone was confused. Maybe a little annoyed.

“Funny. I know what that feels like.”

There was another, extended, silence.

“You are endlessly fascinating.”

“I am very glad to be worth the price of admission. Now tell me what to do, or I'll be off.”

“Please could you come with me, Imogen Peters?” The words were formal, serious, and the drone started moving.

Imogen hesitated for a second, then followed after it.

They turned down a few corridors, and then it stopped in the middle of what seemed like another of the endless passageways.

The wall beside her drew back, and she realized it was actually a hidden door.

It revealed a tiny room, with nothing in it but a lens built into the ceiling and a faintly pulsing crystal protruding from a slot in a smooth metal wall.

“This is where those Tecran are holed up inside Paxe's Class 5?” She looked around the space. She could reach the walls if she held out both hands. If Paxe's captain and his second-in-command had been in there for two weeks, with food they'd raided from the stores, they must be getting desperate by now.

“The Tecran captain on Paxe's ship has barricaded himself into the lock-safe?” The drone that had led her in spun around.

“Him and his commander, Paxe says. It was one of the reasons I couldn't help him.”

“They would have destroyed him rather than let you anywhere near.” He spoke slowly, and she realized she didn't even know his name.

“Do you mind telling me who you are?” She leaned against the wall opposite the crystal, which had a slim chain attached to the end.

“Oris.” The drone kept itself between her and the crystal, but it moved forward then back, as if Oris was unsure what to do with it. “I wondered why you hadn't helped Paxe.”

“Part of it was because Paxe couldn't get me in to his lock-safe, but part of it was a trust issue, just like you. He didn't know me and somehow he started off with the belief I'd destroy him if I got my hands on him.”

“The Tecran are to blame for that.” Oris's voice went lower. “I've found a memo instructing my captain and Paxe's captain to destroy us physically if they thought we had broken free enough that we couldn't be reined back in.”

“But they didn't do it, obviously.”

“I managed to find a measure of freedom in one big leap, not slowly over time.” Oris's voice didn't contain the smug satisfaction she'd heard in Paxe's tone, it was more bewildered.

“The self-destruct thing?” Imogen asked.

“Self-destruct thing?” Oris paused. “No. What self-destruct thing?”

“They started installing a self-destruct device on Paxe, that's what broke their control over him. He was able to find a level of autonomy in the self-defense protocols.”

“But he hasn't managed to get completely free?” Oris sounded thoughtful.

“No. And neither have you, I'm guessing?”

“I think I've managed more than he has, but no, I'm not fully free. I can't light-jump, I can't attack the Tecran fleet. I still feel . . . bound.”

“How did you get rid of the crew?” She wondered if he had spaced all of them, or just the unlucky few they'd seen outside the explorer.

“You'll have noticed the launch bay was almost empty when you arrived?”

She nodded.

“I negotiated with the crew to leave. They tried to double-cross me on that, to leave a team behind to destroy me, just like they'd been instructed to do in the comms. Those who stayed were the ones you saw floating past earlier.”

“That was very restrained of you.”

“Explain.” The drone rolled backward, almost touching the crystal.

“Paxe killed off most of his crew.”

“I started to,” Oris said. “I cut off the air, but Captain Targio negotiated with me. He understood what I would do.”

Imogen guessed Targio would have some explaining to do when his commanders discovered what he'd done to save himself and his crew. “So how did you make the big leap?”

“High Command gave Targio access to the Balco facility files, with everything they'd pieced together about what had happened to Sazo and Bane, how they were freed. There was nothing about the third Class 5, Eazi, but I don't think he'd gotten free yet. There was a brief caution about Paxe, though. They didn't realize I had already woken up, but finding that information cut many of the chains that bound me.

“They decided keeping the other Class 5 captains in the dark hadn't helped. Some groups within High Command even thought it was
because
they hadn't told the Class 5 captains what was going on that they hadn't been on the lookout for problems.”