Purity (Pure and Tainted) (33 page)

Shayla kept her eyes down and her hands twisted together. She
shuffled silently out of the lift when the doors whooshed open and K tugged on
her ragged shirt. They navigated the crowded corridor with only a few curious
glances being thrown their way. A Paladin escorting a lone prisoner might be a
little unusual but it wasn’t far enough out of the ordinary to cause outright
suspicion.

Then, just as they were only a few yards from the small, dark
hallway that led to the docking area, Shayla began to moan.

“No…
no.”

K cursed her luck and tugged harder on the girl’s shirt but Shayla
resisted, pulling backwards and shaking her head.

“No,” she moaned. “The mines are bad enough. I don’t want to go
someplace worse.”

People were beginning to stare. One of the Sage-kind even paused
for a moment, giving the moaning girl a quizzical look, before moving on in a
rustle of long black robes.

“Come,
on.”
K tried to
keep her voice unemotional and failed. Purity, they were so
close.
If only the girl would shut up
and keep moving! But Shayla was going into some kind of emotional fit. She had
stopped dead in the middle of the hallway, refusing to move. Her blue-green
eyes, so much like Boone’s, were welling up with tears.

“Please,” she begged. “Please, don’t.”

With the last of her strength, K gripped the back of the girl’s
neck and steered her into the small, dark hallway.

“Stop it,” she muttered. “Just stop it now. I’m not going to hurt
you or take you someplace worse.”

Shayla was crying openly now. “Please…I just…I can’t…”

“Look.” Making sure her back was to the main corridor, K pressed
the pressure tab behind her ear. The cowl of her suit retracted, baring her
face and most importantly, showing her eyes.

“Please,” Shayla moaned.

“Look at me. Look at my eyes,” K insisted in a low voice. “I’m
here to help you—sent here by your brother—by Boone.”

The tears stopped abruptly and Shayla looked at her with a mixture
of hope and distrust.
“Really?
But…how do I know
you’re telling the truth?”

“Have you seen anyone else around here with eyes like mine?” K
demanded. A sharp pain stabbed her and she had to grab the wall with one hand
to stay upright. “Look, I’m in a lot of pain here. I need you to come with me
to my ship while I’m still able to walk.”

“Oh!” Concern filled Shayla’s eyes. “Are you wounded?”

“Not externally,” K said grimly. “Internally is another matter. I
have to get you out of here before—”

Suddenly a heavy hand landed on her shoulder and spun her around.
K blinked in surprise as she looked into the face of the same guard who had
offered her help down in the mines. Then his eyeshades retracted, showing the
rest of his face.

“Commander?” he whispered, a shocked look on his face.
“Commander K?”

“Six?” K looked at the former pilot and member of her purge squad
trying to make sense of it. He was supposed to be dead! Boone had said her
entire squad was wiped out—hadn’t he? So how could he be standing here alive in
front of her now?”

Apparently
Six
was thinking along the
same lines.

“You’re dead,” he said blankly. “They declared you purged.”

“Well, I’m not,” K snapped. Turning to Shayla, she shoved the girl
at the door. “Come on. I have to get you past the guard and aboard the ship.”

“All…all right,” the girl stammered.

K shoved her roughly toward the vast metal door and out into the
chilly Midas twilight the minute it slid open. She kept her face turned away
from the armed guard, hoping he couldn’t see her eyes.

“Wait!” Six was still tagging along behind them.

“Leave, Six. Go back and leave me alone,” K commanded but for once
he didn’t obey her orders.

“You can’t just show up here like this and then leave, Commander!
I thought I’d never see you again.”

K wished to Purity he hadn’t. Of all the rotten luck, running into
the one person on Midas who would recognize her seemed the worst. Then again,
how could she have known Six would be here, demoted from a Paladin to a guard?
He was still tagging along after her, like a puppy that has found its long-lost
master, following them right up the gangplank to her stolen ship.

“Stop.”
K turned to face him, thrusting
her palm into his face to force him to halt. She keyed open the ship’s door and
shoved Shayla inside—or tried to, but the girl resisted. Purity was
nothing
going to go K’s way today? No
one was obeying her orders and the pain in her abdomen was getting so bad she
wanted to scream. It felt like someone was sawing a hole in her with a rusty,
dull knife. She tried to push Shayla inside again but again Boone’s little
sister resisted.

“Wait,” she protested. “Where are we going?”

“The autopilot is set with the course that will take you to safety,”
K said, unwilling to give away information in front of
Six
.
“Just flip the engage switch and you’ll be on your way. Go.”

“Without you?”
Shayla looked at her uncertainly.
“But if my brother sent you, he wouldn’t want me leaving you behind.”

“Just go,” K ground out. “There’s no help for me but I want you to
get away.” The pain was getting so bad she was certain she was going to die
from it. There was no point in going with Shayla—there was nothing anyone could
do for K now. Well, other than the woman who called herself K’s mother back on
Eros,
and her solution was unthinkable. K would rather be
dead than let a bunch of strangers contaminate and penetrate her. The rusty
knife in her gut was cleaner and more preferable than that. “Go!” she urged Shayla
again, pushing her into the ship. This time, to K’s great relief, the girl
went.

“Hey, where is she going?” Six demanded from behind her. “I
thought this was a prisoner transfer. You can’t send her off in a ship by
herself!”

“I can do whatever I want, Six. How dare you question me?”

K tried to make her voice commanding but it came out weak and
filled with pain. Still, she forced herself to keep standing upright. The guard
at the door was shooting them suspicious looks. He was too far away to hear
what they were saying but clearly there was something wrong going on. Any
moment he would come over and join
Six
in demanding
answers and explanations. K knew she had to hold them off long enough for
Shayla to get the ship underway but Purity, the pain was so
intense
.
Hurry,
she mentally urged Shayla.
Flip the switch. Get away!

At that moment there was a muted roar from the shiny black hull of
the stolen ship. K felt a surge of relief when, with a rush of hot air, it rose
to hover behind her. Thank Purity, Shayla hadn’t hesitated. She was going
now—on her way to Boone. Soon she’d be out of Midas’s thin atmosphere and on
her way to freedom.

K turned her head and watched as the ship rose up higher and
higher until it became nothing but a black dot in the dusky sky. As it winked
out of existence, an immeasurable wave of sadness washed over her. If only she
could have gone on the ship, if only she could have gone back to Boone! But
there was no hope for her. Nothing she could do except
try
to die with honor.

She turned back to
Six
who was still
staring at her in puzzlement.

“Commander,” he said. “I do not understand.”

“You don’t have to,” K said in a harsh whisper. “It’s done now.
It’s all…over.”

Then the world spun around her and she crumpled to the ground.

Chapter Twenty-five

“There! There it is—didn’t I tell you there was a ship coming out
of Midas?” Loki stabbed a finger at the viewscreen where a tiny, shiny black
dot was rising off the rocky, barren little world. “It’s a Purist ship—an older
model too.”

“Like the one that was stolen from the royal docks?” Rolf stared
at it with interest.

“She stole a ship from the royal docks?” Boone looked at Loki’s
new touch partner in surprise. They had known that K had gotten off planet
somehow—the Empress had declared that she no longer felt the presence of her
daughter anywhere on Eros—but nothing had been said about a ship being missing.

“Well, she
is
a princess
with a claim to the whole planet so technically she didn’t steal anything,”
Loki pointed out. “But yes, my man Rolf here was in touch with Eros this
morning and he found out through the grapevine that the ship was just reported
missing today.”

“I’m a mechanic,” Rolf explained.
“Like to keep
my ear to the ground about anything to do with ships.
Apparently the
master of ships knew the Purist vessel was missing but he was afraid to report
it.”

“He should have spoken up right away,” Loki said primly. “Now the
princess is almost a standard week ahead of any pursuit the Empress can put
out. Mr. Master of the ships will be lucky to keep his head.”

“That princess is
K,”
Boone
reminded his pilot in a surly tone. “You know—the woman I love?
The one who might be flying by right under our noses right now
while you and Rolf debate the fate of some minor official back on Eros?”

“Well what do you want me to do?” Loki demanded. “I’m not a mind
reader—I can’t tell if it’s her aboard.”

“Scan the vessel,” Boone said. “Read for life signatures.”

Grumbling, Loki did as he was told. As the instrument panel lit
up, he read the results moodily. “Just one life signature aboard,” he reported.
“But it might just be a lone Paladin doing some kind of drill.”

“Hail the ship,” Boone directed.

“What? We’re still damn close to Midas, Boone! If it turns out not
to be K, we might as well be putting a big ‘Please attack us now’ sign on the
side of the ship.”

“Do it,” Boone growled. “Damn it, Loki, just hail it.
Now.”

With poor grace, Loki did as commanded. There was a long moment of
silence and then a familiar face popped onto the viewscreen.

“Shayla?”
Boone stared at her in disbelief.

“Boone?” She started crying. “Boone, is that really you?”

“The one and only.
Goddess, it’s good to see your
face!”

“Yours too!
Oh Boone, I thought I’d never see
you again.”

“You’ll be seeing a lot more of the big lug in a minute,” Loki
said. “Stand by to be boarded.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Shayla whispered, her eyes shining. “Come as
quick as you can.”

“We will,” Boone promised. He looked at her uncertainly, hoping
against hope that Loki’s life signature scan had been wrong. “Shayla, is there
anyone else with you onboard?”

“No.” Shayla shook her tear streaked face. “No, Boone. I’m all
alone.”

Boone felt his heart sink but he had no time to grieve. Loki was
already setting an intercept course with the stolen Purist ship. Almost before
he could think they were locking an airlock onto the other ship’s entryway and
his little sister was running into his arms.

There was, of course, a lot of kissing and hugging and a lot more
tears on both sides but though Boone was happy to have his sister back, he
couldn’t stop himself from asking about K. What Shayla told him chilled his
heart.

“So she made you leave her there?” he asked for the tenth time.
“Just leave her there and go?”

“I’m sorry, Boone—I told her you wouldn’t want me to.” Shayla
looked ready to cry again. “But she pushed me into the ship and said…she said…”

Boone frowned. “What exactly did she say, Shayla?”

“She said she was done for.” Shayla shook her head. “I don’t know
what she meant by that except that she also said she was in…in pain.” She bit
her lip, looking up at Boone. “I’m sorry, Boone, I should never have left her,
no matter what she told me.”

“No, it’s all right. K knew what she was doing.” He tried to make
his voice gentle and his heart swelled with love and joy to see his little
sister again. But it was a bittersweet reunion. The thought that K was stuck back
on Midas somewhere, a captive or dying or both made him crazy inside.

“Boone—”

“I can’t stand this.” He stood up and started pacing. “She’s
hurting—maybe
dying
. And she’s stuck
on Midas, where—”

“Where we can never get to her,” Loki finished for him. He shook
his head. “Forget it,
Boone,
you know there’s no way.”

“I have to get to her.” Boone ran a hand through his hair. “I
have
to.”

“And what can you do for her if you do?” Loki demanded. “I know
you’ve been tinkering away in your lab but do you have anything that can help
her through her cycle yet? Any way she can take off that damn ugly suit without
going into full feral sex mode?”

“Not yet,” Boone admitted heavily. “I mean, I have something I
think
could work but I
haven’t
had time to test it yet.”

“Well, even if you
did
have
a perfected formula, there’s no way we can get her off Midas by ourselves,”
Loki pointed out. “Anymore than we could just waltz in and get Shayla. K is
probably under a very heavy guard.”

“You don’t understand—I have to try.” Boone shook his head. “She’s
been contaminated, Loki—they’ll kill her for it. Purge her. I
have
to get to her.” He started for the
airlock but Mom, who had been standing silently in the
corner,
put a hand on his arm.

“Where are you going, Boone?”

“To get K.
I’ll take the Purist ship and go
back by myself,” he said fiercely.

“That’s suicide and you know it,” she said quietly.

He shook off her arm. “At least K won’t die alone.”

“Boone, no!”
Shayla was crying again. “Please,
I thought I’d never see you again and now I’m losing you five minutes after I
found you.”

“Actually,
I
found
you,”
Boone reminded her gently.

She shook her head. “Whatever. You can’t go down there alone—you
don’t know what it’s like. Mom’s right—it’s suicide.”

“Shayla, please try to understand.” He took her by the shoulders
and looked into her eyes. “I love K and you don’t abandon people you love. I
can’t leave her down there alone anymore than I could leave you. So I
have
to go.”

Shayla began sobbing harder. “Boone, please…please…” But she
couldn’t get out any more. Boone hugged her hard once and then started to
leave.

“Whoa—hang on now. There’s no need for such desperate heroics,”
Rolf said soothingly. He had been standing beside Loki, with his arm wrapped
around the smaller man’s waist. Now he came forward and put a hand on Boone’s
shoulder. “Maybe I can help.”

“How?”
Boone demanded. “What can you
possibly do in this situation?”

Rolf shrugged. “Not much myself, I admit. But like I told you
before, I
know
some people.”