Shades of Dark (35 page)

Dorsie was baking two
srorfralak
pies. Verno was working solo when I came on the bridge, still tingling from Sully’s kisses. I took the chair, checked ship’s status.
Kyi
gate or not, this was a jumpspace I was familiar with. So was the
Karn.
I guess Stolorths had no more fondness for slippery space than humans did.

Verno was chatting with Ren on intraship. Ren was peeling vegetables again.

Takas loved the peelings almost as much as the pie.

“Go,” I told Verno. “It’ll get done twice as fast with your help and then I won’t have to sit here listening to your stomach growl.”

“You sure, Captain Chasidah?”

“Assist Ren and Dorsie. That’s an order.”

He grinned toothily and hurried off.

I shifted all controls to the pilot’s chair and leaned back, straps loose across my chest.

Ship’s internal sensor showed Marsh in the gym. Philip was still sleeping—not surprising, considering he’d worked late with Sully and Marsh on the rifle he’d pilfered. The
Kyi
-killer, we’d come to call it. Sully and Del were off-sensor, as usual, and were hopefully devising a thousand ways to stop Tage and Burke.

I’d run out of ideas.

Other than this morning, when I’d won against Sully.

Not that our lovemaking was a battle—far from it. And Sully was never controlling in bed. But he had an obvious advantage. This morning, however, was all mine. I didn’t do anything terribly different than I had before. It was my
intent
against his
intent
that changed.

Philip’s warnings had given me the idea. So had Del’s. A
ky’sara
was not without power.

A familiar databox popped on my screen. Well, Verno’s really. But everything was on my console right now. Things to do while in jump. Routine maintenance and systems’ checks. I’d done these thousands of times on various ships in Fleet.

I initiated what the
Karn
needed then pulled up the nav charts for that remote area on the A-B that housed Dock Five. The one bastion of unruliness right on the edge of pristine Aldan. An abandoned mining raft converted to a way station decades ago, and augmented with more mining rafts and odd appendages. It was an ugly thing, barely legal. But it paid its fees to the Empire so there was no reason to shut it down.

Unless Tage chose to.

There were a few smaller rafts within shouting distance of it. No-namers. Used for depot storage, mostly. A few
rafthkra
dealers had tried to use one as a dispensary several years back, but Fleet took exception to it. They closed shop very quickly.

Philip had been part of that operation. I remembered hearing his stories, weeks later, when I was back from patrol in Calth and he had a few days’ liberty. He got all the action. I was relegated to playing hide-and-seek with some mercenary named Sullivan who seemed to get the most inane pleasure from teasing me by edging his ship into Fleet-restricted zones. Just barely.

The bridge’s hatchlock thumped softly closed behind me.

Frowning, I twisted in my seat. We never sealed the bridge except for—

Del. All in black, like Sully always wore. Thermal shirt, dark pants but no long coat. I hadn’t seen that coat since the first day he came on board. Except for that time in the
Kyi
.

He stepped toward me with an easy grace, his long silvery-blue hair pulled back in a braid.

“Problems?” I asked him.

He smiled and rested his hand on the back of my chair. I forced myself not to edge away but I was very aware of the pressure of my Stinger at my thigh. Which meant, very likely, so was he.

“Why do you equate me with problems, Chasidah? Perhaps I just crave the pleasure of your company.”

“Where’s Sully?”

“Ah, Gabriel is an excellent student. I could boast and say I’m an excellent
guri,
but the truth is, he is responsible for his success.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

“Your helping Sully means a lot to him,” I said, keeping all traces of emotion out of my voice, keeping my rattling duro-hards as still as I could. The man was reading me, sensing me. I couldn’t feel it but I had no doubt.

“We were speaking of his appreciation earlier.” His eyes were hooded. He slid his arm around the back of my chair, leaning closer.

This time I did edge away. “If there’s something you want to talk to me about, I suggest you take a seat.”

A whisper of heat stroked my neck then ran down my breasts.

I unhooked the safety strap with a jerk and pushed myself out of the chair. The Grizni on my wrist tingled. My pistol was one move away. “You’re overstepping your bounds, Regarth,” I said firmly. “I don’t find your company pleasurable.”

He leaned both forearms on the back of the chair, clasped his six-fingered hands together, and looked at me, his smile wistful. “It’s just culture and conditioning, lover. It has no real meaning. Not when I have worlds of delight to show you.”

“I’m not interested.”

“You love Gabriel. I understand that. And he loves you, angel. Oh, how he does. You’re his greatest strength, his consummate addiction. But I can teach you ways to love him more. Make
him
love
you
more.”

“The answer is no. It will be
no
tomorrow,
no
a week from now, and
no
a month from now. A year from now. The matter is now closed. If you raise it again, I will lock you in the brig.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Is the bed in there big enough for two?”

“Get off my bridge, Regarth. That’s an order.”

“Consider this.” He unclasped his hands, splaying them apart. “I saved Philip Guthrie’s life.”

“We
all
worked to save Philip’s life.”

“What would you do, Chasidah Bergren Guthrie, to keep him alive?”

Fear shot through me. I couldn’t help it. Fear and a rage so deep it burned worse than my hatred for Tage. I knew he felt it.

“I would kill you,” I said tightly, “to keep him alive.”

Del smiled lazily. “Interesting answer.”

He straightened, took two steps slowly back, and then turned and strode for the hatchway. It opened—illogically—with a flick of his hand in the air and a slight glittering of silver haze.

I stood by my chair, heart pounding, mouth dry, muscles rigid, hands fisted hard by my side, Grizni tingling with more intensity than it ever had before.

But it wasn’t the Grizni I needed.

I rounded the chair quickly and headed for the ready room, slapping the palm pad so hard pain shot up my arm. The double doors opened. I punched my code into the locked storage compartment recessed in the bulkhead and pulled out the rifle Philip had brought on board. The
Kyi
-killer.

I closed the storage compartment and slung the strap over my shoulder.

This was my answer. And his.

I didn’t have a lot of time. I didn’t want to be seen walking around with the rifle. I didn’t want questions. I wanted one more answer, and that answer would be a
yes
to the question: can you duplicate this?

If the answer was
no,
I’d have to take my chances. Keep it with me or at least stow it where Philip or I could get it easily. This ship wasn’t that big.

I couldn’t spend time thinking about this. I had to act, get it done. Not have my thoughts betray the only chance I had. Philip had. Sully had. Because I knew who Del would force to kill Philip.

I checked intraship again. Philip was still asleep. He’d probably only gotten to bed a few hours ago. Shit. He was such a grouch when you woke him too early.

I pinged Marsh in the gym. “Can you sit the bridge for me for ten minutes, maybe twenty? I have to do some urgent work in my cabin.”

“Sure, Captain. On my way up.”

I hugged the rifle to my side and darted into the corridor then down the forward stairs. Marsh, coming from the gym, would likely use the aft set.

Philip’s cabin door was closed. I keyed in the emergency override and slipped inside, well aware that Del might be monitoring everything I did. I had no choice.

The cabin was dark except for the muted glow of floorlights leading to the lav. It was enough that I saw a large shape in the bed.

“Philip?” I called softly.

Grouch or not, abruptly waking a sleeping Fleet officer was a good way to get your windpipe crushed.

“Hmm? Chaz?” His voice was raspy.

“It’s me. Sorry.” I walked carefully around another lumpy shape I knew was the chair, then stopped at the foot of the bed.

He rolled over. My eyes had adjusted to the low light. He was bare-chested. Probably completely naked under the sheet, unless he’d changed his habits.

“You couldn’t possibly be here for the reason I’d like you to be. At least, not carrying that.” He levered up on his elbows. “Trouble?”

“We need another one of these. And we need it yesterday.”

“Regarth?”

“Yes.”

Philip sat up, the sheet falling to his waist. “Lights, medium.”

The room brightened but not so much a man coming out of a dead sleep would feel pain.

“Can you duplicate it?” I asked. I’d seen him do it before, cobble weapons out of the damnedest things. And the power pack on the rifle was sizable. He should be able to siphon off some of it. I only needed enough for one or two shots.

“What did Regarth do?”

“That’s not important.”

“It’s important to me.”

I sighed and sat on the edge of his bed, angling around to face him. I rested the rifle against my thigh. “He admitted to me that he’s Sully’s
guri
. He wants to show me worlds of pleasure. The usual crap.”

“This happen just now?”

“I was alone on the bridge. I didn’t hear him come in until he locked the hatch.”

Philip sucked in a hard breath. The muscles on his arms and shoulders bunched.

“He didn’t touch me. At least, not physically. It was mostly…talk.”

“Goddamned
Ragkiril
filth.”

The last time Philip had used that expression, it had been leveled at Sully, and I’d argued with him. I wasn’t going to argue with him now.

“Philip, I don’t have much time. I need to be back on the bridge. Can you duplicate this?”

He studied my face while I spoke. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing.”

He pinned me with his best steely eyed admiral’s glare.

Damn him. He had a right to know. Officer to officer. But sitting here with him half-naked, unshaven and sleep-rumpled, it was easy to let the personal, the protective side, slip in.

“He threatened to kill you unless I cooperate.”

“Me?”

I guess that wasn’t the answer he was expecting. I nodded. “Likely, he’d force Sully to do it. Some kind of test. Final exam. I almost put the Grizni in his back when he left.” Or shot him. Or both. But Del would be expecting that, I was sure. I didn’t want to give him a reason to leave me dying with a smile on my face.

“Does Sullivan know this?”

I shook my head. “I came straight here.”

“I’m thrilled to be your first choice in times of trouble, but it would help if he was on our side.”

“I don’t know where Sully is, Guth. When he and Del do their training, they don’t register on ship’s internal sensors. The whole time Del was on the bridge with me, I didn’t see Sully’s ID anywhere on the ship. So he’s still in that woo-woo place which, the last time I found it, was in the shuttle bay. God knows where they have it now.”

“You found that woo-woo place or Sullivan took you in?”

“Most times he takes me in when we, you know.”

“Make love.”

“Yeah.” I cringed. God, Bergren, grow up. “But the last time I couldn’t find him, Gregor had beaten him within an inch of his life. So when he disappeared again I forced the issue. I walked in the shuttle bay and the next thing I knew, there I was. Everything was all silvery and glittery and strange.”

Philip had leaned forward and was scrubbing at his hair with his hands. “Okay,” he said, raising his face. “Let me get dressed. I don’t like what I’m hearing here at all.”

“But can you duplicate this?” I picked up the rifle.

He leaned to his right and pulled out the bedside drawer. I caught a glimpse of bare hip. Habits hadn’t changed. “I told you there were three prototypes. That rifle and two smaller ones.” He drew out the dual holster I remembered him wearing when he jumped off the pinnace’s broken ramp way, and hadn’t seen since. “These,” he said, pulling out one of the boxy pistols, “are the smaller ones.”

I almost kissed my ex-husband, then and there. “Do they know you have them?”

“Only if they’re reading us now. I’ve deliberately kept them in here so I wouldn’t think about it. And it wasn’t Sullivan I was hiding them from,” he added.

I stood, pulling my laser pistol out of my holster, shoving the small
Kyi
-killer in. I held out my laser. “Hang on to this for me. Unless you need it?”

He motioned to his shoulder holster draped over the back of one of the chairs. “Got one. Tuck it in the back of your pants, under your shirt for now.”