Victorious Dead (The Asarlaí Wars Book 2) Read online

  “That wee lass you sent our way, Captain. I was questioning your judgment at first, I’ll admit that. But she did as good as anything.”

  The voice came from behind her and Vas turned to see an open comm image on the main screen. Tavil was the second-in-command for Home. His cheery nature balanced out Grosslyn’s sour one.

  “How long have you been there? And where’s Grosslyn? And what wee lass?” Vas had a bad feeling she knew who—confirmation was always best though.

  “I wanted to see the reactions—our ship is back! Grosslyn is off celebrating with a cask of ale and the tiny one, Marli something. She even found us a spare new core, since the one from the Victorious Dead was missing.”

  37

  V as was torn. Very happy to have the ship fixed, but furious and freaked that an unstable Asarlaí had been behind it. She’d have Deven go over every inch of the thing. She was grateful that Marli didn’t tell anyone at Home what happened to the core of the Victorious Dead. It was safe and sound and running this ship.

  “Thank you, Tavil. You still happy on that rock, or do you want to join the new crew?” Vas ignored the mutterings behind her. She hadn’t told anyone about her plan. She just thought of it on the way to the deck.

  “That’s kind of you, lovely lady, but I like where I am. Now, if you’ll be excusing me, there’s a party to attend to.”

  Vas nodded and he cut the comm.

  “Captain? Are you really going to have both ships running?” Mac asked it, but when Vas turned around she noticed every face had the same question. Including Gosta, Deven, and a few others who had come up on the deck.

  Vas’s original plan never went beyond getting her damn ship back. And when her thoughts did drift that way it was more of a plan to sell the Warrior Wench. But having two Galaxy-class ships might be handy for jobs. They could split commands and take on more fights at the same time. Not to mention whatever in the hell was going on right now—having two ships would be better than one. And if her enemies wanted the Warrior Wench she certainly wasn’t going to give it up.

  She looked over the twenty people crowded onto the deck. “I’ve decided we’re going to run two command ships. This one will be the flagship. I’m staying on it. I will be looking for a crew for the Victorious Dead—including a captain.” That hurt a bit, the Victorious Dead had been her heart for fifteen years. But she was changing, and this ship was hers now.

  The deck was silent. Always a shocker when that happened and it was often a time for concern. Vas had expected many of them to jump at the idea of getting back onboard their old ship. None of them had been happy about this one.

  Like her, they might have changed. None of them stepped forward, volunteered, or even said a thing.

  “You know you all disturb me when you’re silent, right?” Vas checked the open comm as she heard nothing from the other decks either.

  “I want to stay here,” Mac said, but his voice was soft, as if he was embarrassed.

  “Me too,” Xsit added.

  Soon everyone on the deck was talking, and every one of them wanted to stay on this ship.

  “Deven? Don’t you want your own ship? Command would be yours,” Vas asked. She desperately didn’t want him to go, but she needed to offer, both for him and for herself. She had no idea what was happening to them before he died—she sure as hell didn’t have a clue now.

  “No way,” he said with a very Deven smile. “I fought too hard to get back here. This is where I belong.” He looked like he was going to say more, but shook his head instead. “I looked at his record—and your comments—and I think your other second-in-command might make an excellent captain. Providing he can keep from being injured.”

  Vas nodded then looked over the specs on the Victorious Dead. The ship was as good as before, if not better. A few liberties had been taken with the layout, Marli’s idea for sure, but they were an improvement. She’d want a larger crew than they normally ran with, at least sixty, maybe seventy-five. She could pull in another thirty on this ship as well. Not all of her people wanted to be on the command ship, or ships in this case. Being ship-bound all the time wasn’t for everyone. But she was sure she could find enough folks—mostly for the Victorious Dead it looked like.

  She looked up from her calculations. “We never addressed what Ragkor was yelling about you.”

  Deven locked his hands behind his back, an unconscious military parade rest. “I know. You said he was a pre-cog? The dust would have accentuated that.”

  “You’re saying he was right? That you are going to betray us?” Vas knew Deven wouldn’t betray her. At least the Deven she thought she knew wouldn’t. Images of his pirate persona came to mind and gave her question. That person was part of Deven as well.

  “That’s not what he said. He said I would destroy everyone and not to trust me because I wasn’t what you thought I was. The fact is, no one knows what I am—not even me.” He was watching the screen, but not focusing. “Destroy can mean many things, and you know I could never hurt this crew, or you.” He shook himself from wherever he’d gone and turned back to her with a smile. His green eyes looked haunted though.

  “I know. I also know I want you to spend some time with Nariel as soon as she gets out of hibernation—which should be tomorrow.” She wasn’t sure how he’d react. Mercs were a stubborn sort. Although Vas kept a mind-doc on her ship, she knew there wasn’t much work for her. Not that her people couldn’t use it, but they were too proud to admit to a problem they couldn’t solve. Vas herself had never visited her until a few months ago. She’d been making up for that since then.

  Deven stayed silent for a few moments, then nodded. “Agreed. I’ll set up an appointment when she awakes.”

  “Good,” Vas said as Deven went back to his console. Then she turned on her comm. “I need a list of anyone who wants to serve on the Victorious Dead messaged to me within the hour. I want that ship crewed and ready to meet us by the time we get back from the Silantian system.” She wasn’t too worried about being understaffed, not with the reactions she’d gotten so far.

  She’d send whoever did want to join their old ship in a shuttle once they got past the Cranib system. It would be a single jump to get to Home.

  “Deven, you have the deck. I’m going to go see how Ragkor is doing.” Vas knew the dust might have compromised him, but she needed to find out if he wanted the job on the other ship before she started bullying folks on Home to take it.

  There were a few crew quarters on the way to the med lab, nicer ones that, for some reason, most of her crew hadn’t wanted. A child’s laughter was not something she’d ever thought to hear in any quarters on this ship. Many of her crew had families, but none of them stayed on this ship. Those with small children worked on Home and went to battle on a case-by-case basis.

  Vas was almost past the quarters where Therlian and Kaena had obviously been assigned, when she stopped and knocked on the door.

  “I’ll get it!” Kaena’s voice was so happy it reminded Vas how resilient children were.

  “You know the rules, even here,” Therlian said, then opened the door. “Well met, Captain. What can I do for you?” She stepped back to allow Vas inside. Even though Kaena had only been able to grab a few things before they fled, toys were everywhere. And a certain marmat was helping hide them behind the furniture.

  “We haven’t talked about where we should take you. You’re welcome to stay here, but we are a fighting vessel and not a good place for a child.”

  Therlian watched her daughter as she and the marmat chased each other around the room. “I know. But we can’t go back, it’s obvious someone on Mayhira was aware of the resistance. We have no family elsewhere.”

  Vas wasn’t surprised at that. Many of the nuns she’d met over the years had no family. It wasn’t a criterion for being accepted, just an unfortunate reality.

  “I have a shuttle going to a base planet I own for my troops. It’s called Home. You and Kaena could go back with it. We’ll fi
nd a place for you, not a worry.”

  Therlian nodded slowly, watching her daughter race with her small pet. “That is a very generous offer. But I have a duty to revenge our fallen sisters. I might never have taken the final oath—but I am a nun of the order in my heart. Could Kaena find a family to foster with? I would go with her back to Home, but I would like to join your second ship once I have found the right people to care for her.”

  Vas couldn’t imagine what it would be like to leave your child with total strangers. But she was moved that Therlian thought enough of her, and her people, to do so.

  “I would be honored to have you serve with us. I’ll have Terel give you a list of some of our people in Cressport who would be likely fosters. She will be protected.” She reached out her arm in the blessing of the goddess. Therlian smiled and echoed it.

  “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to go talk to my future captain.” Vas showed herself out and down the rest of the way to the med labs.

  Pela was in the outer office updating files but looked up as the door slid open. “What can we do for you, Captain? Your new passenger had serious stress issues—he’s back in his quarters doing some chemically induced sleeping. And yes, I want to stay onboard this ship.” Pela was a human/Lysh breed. Mostly looked human, but she was far leaner than most and her limbs were much longer than proportionate. Her slick blue-black hair was accented by bright blue eyes in a deep chestnut face.

  Vas wasn’t surprised about Pela wanting to stay. It could be her or the ship, but she was sure it was mostly because of Terel. Pela worshipped everything about her boss.

  “I was hoping you’d say that. Who else would help me deal with the good doctor when she gets in her moods?”

  “I am just in the next room you know,” Terel shouted. Actually, from the shout she was a door or two down.

  Vas nodded to Pela, but she was already dropping back into whatever she was working on, and went down to where she heard her friend. Swearing mostly.

  “I take it that you’re not planning on jumping ship?” Vas said as she came around the corner of the small room.

  “And leave you to ruin your life? Never. You need me too much.” Terel was behind a cabinet and seemed to be throwing things at the bio-bed in front of her.

  Vas leaned around the bed to see an awake, alert, and heavily secured Ragkor in the bio-bed. “He’s clean?” He didn’t have a decon suit on, but was strapped to the bed.

  “I think so. That dust had him so tricked out he was predicting things I would say. I started throwing things at him to see if he’d pre-see them before they hit. I’m happy to say he’s been missing for the last ten minutes.”

  Vas moved around and undid the straps on his hands. “How do you feel?”

  “Like I’ve been run over by one of the old earth movers on my grandparents’ water farm. But grateful to have that stuff out of my system.” He shook his head. “I never feared my abilities until now. The images in my head—”

  “Were brought on by that damn dust.” Terel undid the straps on his feet. “You’re free to go, but I’d recommend resting for at least another day or so. You weren’t even completely cured from your prior problems.”

  “Listen to the doctor,” Vas said. “But first, how would you like your own command? You’d still be under me, but I need a captain for the Victorious Dead, and you fit the uniform.”

  At first, Vas thought maybe she’d misjudged him. His face froze and something seemed to lock down behind his eyes. Then a beautiful smile appeared. “After all I’ve done, you trust me with your ship?”

  “My second ship. But yes, I do. And you win major points over my other second-in-command who continues to believe these ships belong to the entire crew.”

  “They do,” Terel said from the cabinets where she was putting away the props from her test.

  “Then why am I the only one paying for them?” When Terel didn’t answer, Vas turned back to Ragkor. “I’ll be selecting your crew, most of them will be coming from Home, so you won’t know them. And there is a new one you’ll be riding back to Home with: Therlian. We rescued her and her daughter on Mayhira. She’s going to take her daughter to Home, but wants to be on the Victorious Dead for the time being. She has her reasons, and she’ll share them as she sees fit. But she has my full support. She’d make a fine part of your command crew if you two appear to work well together.”

  Ragkor nodded and rubbed his wrists. Vas knew Terel wouldn’t have used restraints if it hadn’t been necessary.

  “What about Deven? Shouldn’t he get first shot at a new command? Not to mention, I do need to apologize to him and you for my outburst.”

  Vas turned away to give him some privacy as he stood to change out of his medical gown. “He wants to stay here for some unknown reason. And he’s not upset about your taking the other ship, or your outburst. You don’t happen to recall what exactly it was you were reacting to, do you?” She turned back when she heard him sit on the bed to put on his shoes.

  “Sadly, I don’t. I just knew there were dangers all around us. It was like a massive paranoia attack.”

  Terel closed up the cabinets and joined them. “It is that damn Pericdin dust—it triggered something with his pre-cog abilities. Enough to terrify, but no clear pictures. At least that’s what I could gather from trying to talk him down from it when he was partially sedated.”

  Ragkor got back to his feet. “I’d like to lie and say I wasn’t terrified, but I was. Yet there was nothing concrete.” He turned to Terel. “The captain had me working on a project before the incident. Continuing to work on it would still be mostly resting.”

  Terel shook her head. “Why do I even try? Do what you will. But if you end up back here, I’m dumping you in a corner and letting you sort things out yourself.”

  Ragkor smiled, nodded to Vas, and left.

  Vas tried not to laugh, but it didn’t quite work. “You know no one believes you when you try to be tough, right?”

  Terel didn’t answer, but turned up her glare.

  Vas led the way out of the med room and back into the labs. “What did you find?” Yes, there was an insanely slim chance that a microbe of Pericdin dust was left from their storage from all those months ago. And there was also an insanely slim chance that someone in maintenance had accidentally cracked the housing into the decon chamber Ragkor had been in.

  The odds of both happening were so high even Mac wouldn’t have bet on them.

  38

  Terel didn’t answer at first, but walked to the back of her lab where the most powerful level of microscopes were. She punched up a pair of slides, and then stepped back for Vas to look.

  Two thin orange strands. Two very similar thin orange strands. The highest level of magnification still made it appear as if the two were simply clones of each other. Vas pulled back with a shrug.

  “The samples of the Pericdin are exactly the same. Except for one tiny section,” Terel said then moved forward and made a single adjustment. “You can only see the difference under ultraviolet.” She gestured for Vas to look again. They still looked almost identical—the trick being almost. The one on the right had a narrow purple band around the bottom.

  “The one on the right is the new one?” Vas knew that anyone other than Terel would have been satisfied that the two samples were the same and certainly never would have run it under ultraviolet. Even now, if she didn’t look at the strands at the perfect angle, the purple band faded from view.

  “Yes. Someone had part of the original sample and worked hard to copy it. That purple you see was something left behind during their copying process. They wouldn’t have even seen it unless they looked in ultraviolet.”

  Vas studied the strand again, then stepped back. “Someone planted this, tried to get to Ragkor, and wanted it to look like a remnant from the original attack?”

  Terel switched off the machine. “I’d say it was deliberate, and they wanted the dust to look like it came from the exact batch our previous a
ttack did. But I can’t know for sure if they were after Ragkor specifically or simply trying to cause problems on the ship.”

  Vas started pacing. They’d brought two new people on board and within a few hours a dangerous drug was planted near her second-in-command. “Gosta, can you check who’s done any searches on locations of the crew? Specifically, if either of our two guests have run them?”

  “Aye, Captain, both have.”

  Vas scowled at the comm. She’d kept their links open so they could access the computers, but in a limited fashion. And she could see where they went.

  She hated to think that Therlian could have done this, but she had been the one who left the storefront before it exploded. Vas had overheard Hallam telling Kaena that if he hadn’t followed her mom, he’d have been dead now.

  Hallam didn’t seem to have the guts to try and pull something like this off. Nevertheless, he might have taken a bribe to cause problems on their ship. Except that Vas had been with him the entire time since they’d decided he was coming on board.

  “Could it have been planted any time earlier?”

  “Vas, I’m not even sure it was planted. There’s no way to be sure that this strand wasn’t an aberration. This speck is so small that you couldn’t even see it with a standard magnifier. It could have been an accident.”

  “We can’t assume that about anything.”

  Xsit cut in on the comm. “Captain, we’re being hailed. We’re reaching the outer edge of the Silantian system.”

  Vas nodded toward the magnifier. “Keep records of everything you find, and run regular sweeps for air quality. If someone did try something, they might try again.” She looked at her hand-held. Only five people had expressed interest in transferring to the Victorious Dead, and none were from her command crew. She tapped her comm. “Thank you, Xsit. Gosta, looks like we’ll need to use the B shuttle for our folks going to the other ship. They can pick up the bulk of their belongings when we meet back up.”