Talent For Trouble (17 page)

Jana rerouted her feet and headed for the bridge rather than the galley. When she stepped onto the bridge, the mood was tense, and Darak was in his command chair, frowning at his personal data screen. He looked up and met her gaze, reserved welcome in his expression, as if he wasn’t looking forward to telling her what was on his mind.

She walked right up to him.

“We’re going closer to the collective, aren’t we?” Her tone was challenging, but she didn’t wish to recall her words.

It was time she began to stand up for herself. The warrior Jana she had been reading about didn’t take shit from anyone—including her so-called masters in the collective. At least, she did what she could to circumvent their crappy orders and find ways to keep her men alive while still achieving the objectives set out by the Voice.

That’s what the reports she’d read so far had told her. The new Jana found solace in that small rebellion of her younger self. It made her feel better to know that even while under their control, she’d found ways to thwart them. Small ways, to be sure, but at least she’d put up a fight and saved lives in the process. That had to count for something, right?

“Yes.” He answered her challenge simply, with no subterfuge.

“Why?”

“Several reasons, actually.” Darak sat back and rubbed his hand over his stubbly chin. He hadn’t taken time to groom himself, which told her a lot. Whatever had been on the crystal he’d gotten had to be very important.

“Will you tell me?” She held her breath, waiting for his answer.

“There are few secrets on the
Circe
,” he replied almost automatically. “We’re all here because we’re working toward the same goal. So, yes, I will tell you. In fact, I’d planned to hold a crew briefing so everyone knows what we’re getting into. Agnor…” he turned his attention to the tall man at the comm station, “…ask everyone to come up here for a few minutes.”

Agnor nodded and turned back to his panel to issue the communication to the rest of the crew. Within a minute, they began to arrive. Seta was first, yawning and wearing a see-through nightie. The two yeomen entered next, both in loose pants with stretchy shirts that showed off their muscular physiques. Trini was last, but she was at least fully dressed, having been on duty in the hold, doing inventory from the looks of the datapad in her hands, the scanner on her belt, and the stylus stuck behind her ear.

“Due to the intel we picked up on Liata, I’ve plotted a course for Mithrak.”

Jana gasped, and a few eyes turned to her in sympathy. She had been born on Mithrak. She had been stolen from Mithrak. And she’d never been back to the place of her greatest joy and her greatest sorrow.

“The Liatan governing council believes that the reason they were attacked is due solely to one of their own who took off and joined the collective of his own free will,” Darak went on.

It was Trini’s turn to gasp. She was a native of Liata and probably found it hard to believe one of their own would send an armada to destroy their home planet.

“Our target’s name is Kol. He’s Liatan, so therefore has blue skin. There are no current surveillance images of him. He’s very careful about being seen. But we’ve learned that he’s leading the Wizard cull on Mithrak over the next three weeks. If we can pin him down, we have orders to attempt capture and return to Liata so he can stand trial. If we can’t manage a capture, we are authorized to kill. His crimes against his home planet have earned him a death sentence.”

“They have proof?” Trini asked, her hand trembling.

“Irrefutable proof,” Darak answered. “I’m sorry, Trin. I know Liatans are generally pacifists. This man is a threat that your government wants gone.”

“If we don’t know what he looks like, how do we identify him? We can’t just go shooting every blue person on the planet. Liatans like to travel. There’s bound to be a few there besides the one we’re looking for,” Seta pointed out.

Darak turned to look at Jana. “I was hoping…”

“I can identify him,” Jana said in as strong a voice as she could manage. “In fact, I can do a computer sketch of his face as I remember it. It may not be exact, but it’ll be good enough to start the search.”

Darak smiled at her for the first time since she’d stepped onto the bridge. It was a small smile, but a smile nonetheless, and it warmed her.

“All right,” Darak recaptured everyone’s attention. “Seta, I want you to check my nav calculations once you wake up a bit, then you can go back offshift. Trini, we’ll need to change the ship ID and find something in the hold that might possibly pass for trade on Mithrak. Ag, you’re on our alternate personal IDs. Do at least one for everyone, just in case. Jana’s working on the sketch, and I want you two…” he pointed to the two yeomen, “…to calibrate the guns and check the weapons systems.”

Jana was hearing things she hadn’t truly comprehended about the little cargo vessel. For one thing, it was armed. Now, the presence of the young men made more sense. She’d wondered what their duties entailed, but if there were guns, they’d need someone to fire them during battle. Not everything could be left to a computer—even a really good one was no match for the computing power of the human mind. And if those minds were Talented, as she knew both yeoman’s were, then the possibilities of successful targeting increased exponentially.

The fact that everyone seemed nonplussed at the idea of changing the ship’s ID along with their own personal IDs also told her something. She’d assumed Darak and this ship operated as some kind of intelligence gathering group for the Council. She hadn’t realized just how actively they participated in the spy game. The
Circe
, in truth, was a full-fledged spy vessel.

Jana grinned as she sat at her console, pulling up the items she would need to create an image of the blue man she remembered from her nightmares. It wasn’t a pleasant task, but if she could put a stop to Kol, the bastard, she would put every effort into the task. He needed to be stopped. And he needed to pay for what he’d done. Preferably by her own hand.

Only then, she feared, would she be able to bury the past. With him.

Within a few hours, Jana was finished with the sketch. It was as good as she could make it working from hazy memory and using the computer for assistance. She sent the image to all personnel after showing it to Darak first.

Darak had stared at the image of Kol’s face for a long time, his expression hard. She knew he was memorizing it, possibly looking for some sign of how such an outwardly plain-looking fellow could be so cruel and power-mad. Jana had wondered the same thing whenever her mind was free of the collective. Which, mercifully, hadn’t been all that often.

For when Kol cut her off from the collective, it was to play his sick games. He would use the time off the grid to rape her. Sometimes, he held a knife to her throat. Sometimes, he cut her. Once, he’d beaten her.

That time, she recalled now, at least one of the soldiers who stood guard inside the “playroom”, as Kol called it, had to be restrained by one of his compatriots. Kol hadn’t seen it, but Jana remembered the guards behind Kol moving—one trying to come to her aid while the other held him back, shaking his head furiously.

Even then, she had understood why the guard’s impulse had been thwarted. She’d wanted that guard to help her, but she knew if he stepped out of line, Kol would have him killed. His kindness would be repaid with death—his and possibly his entire platoon’s. Kol had that kind of power over them all. It would do no good to go against his wishes.

But Jana also remembered that after Kol had finished with her, that guard had picked her up and taken her to a healer. His face was the last she’d seen before sliding into unconsciousness, and when she’d awoken, she was back in the collective.

She still remembered that guard’s face. She had known his name, too, but it escaped her, at the moment. Her memories were coming back in bursts, but they weren’t always complete. Perhaps, in time, she would get the rest of the memories back. Perhaps not. At this point, she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to remember everything.

Then again, that guard had been kind to her. He’d had nothing to gain by treating her with gentle hands. He could just as easily have tossed her to the healers and turned away. But he’d stayed while they worked and watched over her until she lost consciousness. He might even have stayed after that. She didn’t know. But he’d cared when Kol had hit her. She’d seen his involuntary move and the deliberate way he’d been stopped by his fellow. At least that one soldier had had some compassion for her. So, maybe it wasn’t all bad.

After she finished with the sketch, there seemed little for Jana to do. Everyone was busy with the tasks Darak had set for them. She considered going back to her cabin to read more about her past life, but she wasn’t really sure she wanted to know more, right now. Her mind was overflowing with everything she’d already learned. She needed a little bit of time to integrate all the new data flowing into her brain.

“Jana.” Darak’s voice came to her as she was considering her options for what to do next. She turned from her console on the bridge to look at him.

He was much closer than she’d thought. She looked up to meet his gaze as he stood only a few feet away from her.

“There’s something we need to discuss. Have you eaten recently?” His expression seemed open enough, though she worried about what he might want to talk to her about in private.

“I could eat,” she said, standing and securing her station. They walked together, off the bridge and down to the galley.

He served them both before he started on the topic he wanted to discuss. Jana realized she was quite hungry, after all, and nibbled on the meal he’d set before her while he got down to business.

“Jana, I think you realize your appearance is going to make it almost impossible to disguise you adequately for this mission. The crystals in your skin can’t be hidden, and we can’t take the chance that members of the collective will recognize you. You were one of their top ship captains. A lot of people will have seen your face.” Darak laid out the facts while they ate.

“I can’t argue with your logic,” she admitted. “If nothing else, the crystal shards are a liability. I can hide the ones on my body under clothing, but the ones on my face…” She trailed off, letting her fingers glance over the permanent jewelry embedded in the skin of her face.

“Right,” Darak agreed. “Which is why I want you to stay on board when I go down to the surface of Mithrak.” He looked up from his meal and sought her gaze.

“I may not remember much about my previous life, but I do remember that I’m not used to inactivity. If there’s a mission happening, I like to be in the middle of it,” she stated truthfully. “But I do realize why you’re asking this. Truly, I do. You want to keep me safe and your concern is something I value highly. It’s been a long time since anybody’s cared about my welfare, Darak, and I treasure that. But I can’t help but think that you might need me along with you on this mission. For one thing, I know how the collective works. I can tell you what they’re going to do even before they do it—both from experience and because…” She took a deep breath before revealing the discovery she’d been fighting against. “Because the closer we get to them, the louder the Voice is at the back of my mind. I can hear them, Darak. They’re getting clearer all the time.”

Darak frowned and reached across the table to take one of her hands in his. “Is it dangerous? Will you fall into the collective again?”

“I don’t believe so,” she answered. “I can hear them, but it’s as if they are totally unaware of me. Maybe the crystals block them from recognizing my mind as a separate entity. I don’t know. But whatever it is, this doesn’t feel the same way the Voice used to feel in my head.”

“Describe it for me,” Darak prompted, not unkindly.

“Before, the Voice was a compulsion. Something I had to obey no matter what. I had no free will of my own, and it was aware of me in every way. It could rip apart my mind and rifle through my thoughts whenever it wanted, or it could take me over completely—which it did for long periods of time.” She shuddered remembering the oily feeling in her mind after those instances. “Now, it’s separate. Like something I’m overhearing that has no idea I’m there at all. I feel no connection to it. No need to obey it. I can just hear it and observe from afar. It seems to have no interest in me.”

“But that could change, couldn’t it? If Kol or someone like him saw you. Couldn’t they use that connection to try to enslave your mind again?” Darak insisted.

“I know they would try, but I think the crystals would stop them. I think they protect me in some way. Isolate me from the collective while still allowing me to hear the Voice.”

“What is it saying?” Darak’s gaze was intense.

“Mostly indistinct murmuring right now, but occasionally I hear words. I believe as we get closer, it will become clearer. I can tell you that earlier, when I was working on Kol’s likeness, I heard a directive to burn something. A farmhouse, I think. The Voice sounded angry. Like it had been thwarted in some way.”

Darak sat back in his chair, regarding her steadily. “We’ll be in range in the next few hours, for long scan. I’ll ask Agnor to check for any fires—or heat signatures—on the ground. Maybe you can help us pinpoint a location to start our search for Kol.” Jana nodded, wanting to help in any way she could. “And I want Agnor to run a few more tests. If your abilities are changing, it would be best to analyze the nature of the change. For one thing, we need to determine if this new skill is coming from within yourself, or being imposed from the outside.”

“You mean the collective, right?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so, but you’re wise to check. I have no objection to more tests. I’d like to be as certain as I can, too. I’d rather die than go back to the collective.” She swallowed hard and steeled herself to ask something of him that she had been dreading. “If it comes to that, Darak, I want your promise. Shoot me yourself before you let me go back to them.”

Darak scowled. “I’ve told you already—it won’t come to that. Which is why I want you here, safely aboard the
Circe
. She has cloaking technology unlike any other ship in space, right now. Everything on her is cutting edge technology. She will keep you safe, even when I can’t.”