Victorious Dead (The Asarlaí Wars Book 2) Read online

  “I had no idea that you were a scholar of history, Captain Marli,” Gosta said.

  That beaming look on his face wasn’t good. Vas had no doubt that under normal conditions Marli was an expert at hiding who she was. But as demonstrated, these were not normal situations.

  “I am many things, good Gosta.” Marli pushed herself out of the chair and stepped toward him. “One of the things I am is furious at whoever attacked us. I think we must agree there is motivation from the empress, but if others know there is something of value beneath the surface on that world, what it really is, there could be additional interested parties.” She gave a quick glance and nod to Vas’s blaster, and then went back to the pilot’s station. “And based on the interest this ship has drawn as of late, we can’t discount an attack on you or your captain. I know you can find our answers, Gosta.”

  Vas settled the weapon back in her hip holster and went back to her chair. Marli was extremely good at diffusing a situation with distraction and flattery. Gosta had already gone back to his searches.

  “Captain, the numbers on our patients are changing again,” Terel’s voice cut in on Vas’s comm. “I think we need Marli down here immediately.”

  Vas turned but Marli was already striding for the lift. Part of Vas didn’t want to go down to sickbay. The hole Deven had left in her life was painful, but it was slowly healing. The loss no longer destroyed her a little each day, but had become another part of who she was. This was risking it all opening up again.

  But she needed to go.

  “Gosta, you have the bridge. Bathie, take pilot until Mac gets back up here. We’ll be in the med bay if you need us.” She held open the lift doors. “And call me if any new intel comes up about the people behind the attack.” The door started to close and she caught it again. “Or anything about anyone entering the system.”

  She almost caught it a third time when Marli pulled her hand back and let the lift doors shut. “He will be okay.” There was a gentleness on her face that was as scary as her terror earlier had been.

  Vas shook her head. “That’s not like me. I don’t fret and fuss.”

  “You probably were also never in love with someone like Deven before.” Marli didn’t smirk, but there was a knowing look behind her eyes.

  Vas stopped the lift. “I’ve been in love before. This is different. He was my second-in-command for fifteen years. I’m still not sure why whatever happened between us happened. Nor how he called to me when I was dying.” She started pacing now, difficult in the small lift. “Nor how in the hell someone who was blown up can come back—and as three different people no less!” That felt good. Vas knew she had a mind-doc, but sometimes you needed to vent, not dig deeper.

  “Yup, it’s different because it’s Deven.” Marli smiled and pressed the lift to resume movement again. “I won’t give away his secrets, that’s a pact we have between us. But when we get him back, those are good questions to start with.”

  The lift opened on the med level before Vas could come up with a response.

  The med lab looked far different now. Much of the equipment was cleared and the three bio-beds took center place. The pirate Deven must have finally settled down as there was no movement from any of the cases over the beds and Gon was standing against the far wall.

  Terel handed Marli and Vas surgical suits. At first it looked like Marli wasn’t going to wear it, then she gave in and put it on. Most likely her Asarlaí physiology refused to let any germs survive around her.

  Vas walked to the bio-beds. All three Devens looked peaceful, but they also were far too pale. And gaunt. “Are they dying in front of us?” She didn’t know if she could go through losing him again—three more times.

  Terel and Marli had gone over to a bank of equipment—things that Vas knew had to have come from Marli’s ship, as she’d never seen them before.

  Terel looked over. “The beds should be slowing it down, but it’s as if once we got all three of them together they started breaking down faster.”

  Marli made a few more adjustments to the main bank of equipment, then turned and made changes to the panels on each bed. She was all business now; her hands were nothing more than a blur.

  All three bio-beds slid open at the same time. Gon jumped as he was standing near the pirate one, but he recovered as soon as he saw no one was climbing out of it.

  Marli took control of all three beds and moved them next to each other with a wave of her hand.

  “What do you need us to do?” Terel asked. She too was all business. She was a doctor now working with another doctor to save a patient, and any animosity with Marli was shoved to the side.

  Marli looked up in confusion, as if she’d forgotten anyone was there. She probably worked alone on her ship.

  “I’m not exactly sure how this will work. But I need you to monitor all of their vitals on the far monitor.” Marli then pointed to Gon. “Is he safe?” She wasn’t looking at Vas, but she was speaking to her. Gon lifted an eyebrow but said nothing.

  Vas met his eyes. Gon was a solid grunt. Smarter than most, even on this ship. But he kept his brains hidden. If Marli was asking, it was because she was going to do some very Asarlaí things.

  “Yes, he is.” Vas shot Gon a smile, but she wasn’t sure if it was going to be something he’d smile back at once he knew about Marli.

  Marli nodded then moved closer to Gon. “Sorry I have to do this the shocking way, but I think we’re going to need help from you and your captain on this. And I can’t have you freaking out when I change.” She looked up into his stoic face. “How do you feel about the Asarlaí?”

  He shrugged. “Never knew them. But they caused a lot of problems back in the day.”

  “I am one,” Marli said as she stood inches away from him.

  “Nice to meet you?” Gon was a man of the moment. He had nothing personal against the Asarlaí; his people were latecomers to this quadrant.

  “I’m going to change to what I really look like. Are you okay with it?” Marli had moved even closer. She must have picked up on acceptance, or something from him because she changed before he said a word.

  Vas heard an intake of breath come from Terel and was sure she did the same. Knowing in theory that the person you thought was a petite, brunette human was actually a seven-foot-tall, pale, fanged, and red-eyed alien wasn’t the same as seeing it.

  Her clothing morphed with the change, which was amazing considering the change in height had to be a foot and a half. Her white blond hair was caught up in a series of knots and braids, but still reached the ground. Everything about her was longer than would be on a human. She reached out one impossibly long fingered hand and held it up to Gon. “Are you okay?”

  He looked up at her, not common for him. Then nodded. “Yup. That hair must be a bitch.”

  Vas let out a laugh. Gon definitely won for unflappable crewmember of the year. As long as she kept him out of shuttles, anyway.

  Marli smiled, her tiny fangs catching the light, then changed back to her human glamour. “You’ll do fine.” She patted his cheek and then turned back to the bio-beds. “Gon will be security. I don’t think any of these men have any energy left, but this is going to be an interesting maneuver. The parts that are Deven have latched onto these other two personas, so letting them go could be difficult.” She stopped in front of the pirate Deven with a grimace.

  “Okay, I still have no idea what you’re doing,” Vas said. Asarlaí mojo was all well and good, but Marli hadn’t clarified things at all.

  “I found a procedure that I’ve modified that should work. The two bodies, the gahan and the pirate, are actually manifestations from those aspects of Deven when he came back into this plane. They don’t exist—never did. His personality is so strong that he was able to make the people around him believe he’d been a part of their lives for years.” She frowned. “That is something I must look into later.”

  “You’re going to destroy the manifestations, and hope that close prox
imity to the original, or re-created original, will force them to join back with it.” Terel nodded as if someone had asked her how to bandage a cut.

  “Exactly! I knew I liked you, Doctor.” Marli beamed then went back to her monitors.

  Terel raised one eyebrow at the last bit, but also turned back to her assigned monitor.

  Vas was going to drag Terel off for a full explanation later—she still had no idea what was going on.

  “What do I do?” Vas asked. Give her a battlefield over a medical job any day. But she needed to be here.

  Marli turned to her and motioned her toward the center Deven, the one who’d appeared on Marli’s ship. “This is Deven prime, the real one, if you will. I need you to take his hand. Anchor him here. Make him focus on you. Whatever happens, don’t let go.” Her dark eyes were serious, and a little sad.

  Vas took his hand. She was surprised at the coldness, but squeezed it tighter. Faint images hit her as she fit her hand to his. Faint at first, then clear. They were her. The first was at the job interview when she first met him. Vas had to replace her original second-in-command when she took off to join a cult after four months on the job.

  The first image from Deven was her waiting as he came in the room. Vas couldn’t hear what they said, nor, to be honest, did she recall it. But a warm feeling came from Deven and flowed into her. Then more images flooded forward. All of her, all with emotions attached. It wasn’t lust, although there was a component of that, it was something deeper.

  Then Deven’s hand spasmed and nearly pulled free.

  Vas opened her eyes. Marli was in full Asarlaí appearance, and moving so fast she was little more than a blur. As she paused and held up her hand a series of figures, images, and equations appeared in a bright blue light in front of her.

  “Hold him!” Marli didn’t look to her but her movements increased.

  “We’re losing the gahan. Respirations are practically nonexistent. We need to pull back!” Terel yelled.

  Vas fought to hang on to the Deven in front of her.

  “That’s supposed to happen. They need to merge into him. Let the gahan die.” Marli moved faster.

  Vas looked up to see Terel’s face. Letting anyone die was not part of her make-up—even if it was someone who wasn’t technically alive. The gahan Deven had believed he was alive. That was enough for Terel.

  “Terel, you have to do it. That Deven will still live, he will be part of the whole.” Vas yelled, then buckled to her knees as the Deven before her crushed her hand.

  Terel didn’t say anything, but she closed her eyes and changed her monitors. She’d been fighting to keep him alive, now she had to watch him die. The mind-doc was going to get a lot of business when she came out of hibernation.

  The Deven in front of her screamed and arched his back, but the pressure on Vas’s hand lightened up.

  A low hum filled the room as the monitors reported the gahan Deven’s death.

  Tears came from under Deven’s closed eyes and more images filled Vas’s head. These were of her as well, but more on an order of communication. Vas felt like she should understand what he was sending, but she couldn’t grab it. A feeling of loss flowed over her.

  Thrashing came from the pirate Deven’s bed. That one was not going quietly to his end. Gon ran forward and held him down as Marli moved closer to the side of the room the pirate was on.

  Vas swore as the hand she held grew cold again. “That one is trying to kill the original!” She climbed into the bio-bed, trying to focus on the Deven next to her, on the way she felt about him. She dragged up all the mental images of him she could find. Him watching out for her when she was drunk, talking her down when she wanted to go blow some bastard’s head off, rubbing her back when she was sick and exhausted and couldn’t show it to anyone else.

  Terel’s monitors started their warning beep, but it was coming from this bed, not the other.

  Vas fought back with more images of Deven and his crewmates as she wrapped her arms around him the best she could. Deven taking care of people left behind after their battles, people who would have nothing. Until he slipped them funds. He always thought no one knew—but Vas did.

  The thrashing next to her told Vas the pirate Deven was not giving up. Maybe she needed to remind this Deven that the pirate was part of him too. The gentle side wasn’t working.

  Vas flashed to memories of him in battle, both real and on the hologram deck. Him taking down his opponents skillfully and without fear. But with compassion still in place.

  Vas looked over Deven’s head and across the room. Terel was at the machines trying to save this Deven, but Vas felt his breathing grow shallow and his skin grow cold. Marli flung information in the air around her like a cloak. Gon had climbed into the bed with the pirate Deven to keep him still.

  Vas held him tighter and buried her face into his neck. “I need you, Deven. I need you to come back to me and be whole.” She forced all of her thoughts, dreams, memories of him—all of him—into her odd communication with him. She was not letting him leave her again.

  The room exploded in a wall of light and sound. Then went dark.

  21

  V as grabbed ahold of Deven’s hand in the dark. First his skin dropped to bone-jarring coldness, then suddenly felt like it burst into flame and he held her hand so tightly, if it hadn’t been broken before, it was now.

  “Gon, get those lights back on!” Marli yelled. The glowing blue images she was forming in the air above Deven’s bed grew brighter, but no other illumination came.

  Terel started a steady stream of swearing, accented by what suspiciously sounded like her slamming into something heavy. Then a moment later emergency lights came on.

  The backup lights created an odd scene. The pirate Deven had managed to shove Gon off of him and was lying draped half way out of his bio-bed. He was no longer fighting, and the heart monitor for Deven prime was no longer beeping. The gahan Deven was now disintegrating. At this pace, he would be nothing but dust before they got the regular lights on. The low hum from the pirate Deven told her he would be soon meeting the same fate.

  “Captain? I know we’re not supposed to bother you guys, but the entire ship is on backup power,” Gosta said through the comm. “We still have minimal life-support and engines, but everything else is off line. What happened?”

  Vas looked down at the man still holding her hand. Color was filling Deven’s face, and his breathing was strong. “Deven happened. Get us back to full power as soon as possible, Gosta. Vas out.”

  The faint scars were less noticeable as color refilled his face, but they were still there. His hair was longer than when he’d died, and longer than it should have been able to grow in the months he’d been dead. But her Deven was there.

  She moved to get a better look at him, and swore as pain tore through her hand. “As much as I don’t want to, can I let go of his hand? I think he broke mine.”

  Terel looked up from where she was studying the dust that remained of the gahan Deven. Gon pulled the quickly disintegrating pirate Deven back into his bio-bed. Then he freed Vas’s hand and helped her climb out of the bio-bed.

  Marli stood there.

  She was still in her Asarlaí form, her right hand extended and more equations and formulas appeared in the ghostly blue script in the air in front of her. But she wasn’t looking at anything except Deven.

  “That stubborn son of a bitch,” she said then came around to the side of the bed and traced one long finger down his face. “You are the most difficult, stubborn, ornery thing I have ever seen. And that includes the entire Asarlaí race.” She finally looked up as if reminding herself there were other people around. “He’ll sleep for a bit. It’s not easy being put back together like that. At least I wouldn’t think so.” She tilted her head, and snapped back into her human glamour. “I didn’t know if this would work. But leave it to this one to blow out all the power in the ship with his return.”

  Vas cradled her hand. That was one p
roblem with hands, lots of tiny bones to get squashed. “You didn’t know this would work? He is going to be okay, right?” The sleeping man before her looked so much like her Deven, he had to be okay.

  Marli shrugged. “Even my people don’t do what his do. Hell, even his people can’t do what he just did. We are going to need to do some serious studies on you, my boyo.” She spoke the last to Deven, and then punched in the command to close the cover over the bio-bed.

  “He should be him now. There might be some glitches, but he is Deven more or less as you knew him before he went out and got himself blown up. It will be better if he stays contained in the bed while recovering though. His system has had a big shock.”

  Terel buzzed over to Vas and ran a scanner over her hand but watched Marli. “I can’t believe you did this without knowing what you were doing.” Without taking her eyes off Marli, Terel got a thin cast on Vas’s hand. “A few days, then this can come off.”

  “I told you, this is all new ground. Now, granted no one can know about this, at least not for a very long time. But think of it—you’re on the cutting edge of a medical phenomenon.” Marli smiled at Terel, then closed the other two beds.

  Terel narrowed her eyes. Vas knew her mind was whirling. She’d had to watch as two beings died, even if they were reabsorbed by the original. Then to find out they’d been flying blind. Nevertheless, Marli knew Terel when she spoke of medical advancement. She finally nodded.

  “Agreed. But, you share everything. We both do.”

  “See how easy that was?” Marli said.

  Vas wasn’t sure about those two working together, but Terel not being intimidated or overwhelmed by the Asarlaí woman was a good start.

  Then regular lighting came back on, and the backup lighting shut off.

  Vas flexed her hand. The flex cast had set, and would help heal the bones with alarming speed. Plus, it still let her use her hand. She let out a laugh.

  She nodded when Terel and Marli both turned to look at her. “I realized that this is the same hand I busted on Deven’s jaw a few months ago.”