Asarlai Wars 1: Warrior Wench (28 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Two months later they were still no closer to finding solutions. The data from the gray ships proved nothing except they weren’t from this galaxy. A confirmation of what they already suspected, given the tech the ships had used.

They’d made it to Home for repairs, and aside from a brief sighting of Marli’s ship on one of their hops, hadn’t run into anything dangerous or troublesome since then. Vas thought of trying to flag down Marli to tell her about Deven. However, the
Scurrilous Monk
seemed to be leaving the system very quickly and Vas didn’t want to get in her way.

Whatever was going on within the Commonwealth was growing. Nothing official, but the channels for the outer rim planets indicated fewer contacts between the council center and the outer rim offices. It was as if the Commonwealth was closing in on itself, not caring what worlds on the rim were being lost in the process. If this was how the Commonwealth died, it died with a whimper, not a bang.

The unprovoked attacks on small outer planets continued and Vas and her crew found themselves running more refugee rescue missions. The pay was next to nothing. Most often it
was
nothing. However, there weren’t any other real jobs in the outer rim, and Vas didn’t want to go further into the Commonwealth center to look for work. Thanks to Deven’s last job, they were going to be solvent for a long while.

They’d broken the Graylian monks puzzle completely thanks to a bedridden and bored Hrrru. So far they’d recovered two more of the pieces of the
Victorious Dead
, which had been hauled back Home to be dug out of their trash coating and then stored. Flarik had allowed them to pull in a few more pieces to try and help build morale, but she still felt that leaving at least some out there would be best. The monks were obsessive and by taking out the first three pieces in their ritual training exercise, Vas and her crew had effectively shut down their training completely. She had no idea what they’d been training for, but given the recent events, she had to assume that stopping it was a good thing.

Vas had fallen into a routine: find out where the next piece of her ship was, see if any refugees needed help, and try not to think about Deven.

It had been going fine until she had a very vivid dream of him and woke up almost screaming his name.

“Damn you, get out of my head.” Vas’s people often carried on conversations with the dearly departed, it was one of the few traditions she’d kept when she’d fled the barren rock she’d grown up on. However, talking to his shade didn’t get the dream out of her head. It was far too passionate to leave quickly. “Bastard,” she said as she shoved the dream into a dark corner and got dressed to go to the command deck.

They were en route to the fourth part of the ship, when another attack on a small moon colony prompted a detour. That many of these attacks occurred within the systems containing her ship pieces couldn’t be a coincidence. Why these gray ships were destroying harmless worlds was another unanswered question. So far the ships were avoiding any of the more heavily defended planets on the outer rim.

Vas was just leaving her room when a klaxon sounded and an impact jolt slammed her into the wall and she tumbled to the ground. She picked herself up and ran to the lift. They were going through a small gate, rarely used. Had it exploded?

The command deck was in chaos when she reached it. Gon was in the pilot’s chair, and while he had some flying skills he wasn’t nearly as good as Mac. The ship was surrounded by huge pieces of debris.

“Where’s Mac?”

“He’s off shift right now,” Gosta said as he rapidly made some adjustments on his console. Gon was fighting to keep up but another piece of debris hit their shields. It was smaller than the first but the impact was still clear on the screen.

“No offense, Gon, but get Mac up here now!” Vas threw herself into her command chair and called up the specs. They’d managed to come out of the hypergate right into what used to be a small moon and the remains of a population ship. A quick scan indicated no intact ships were in the area.

Mac must have been awakened by the first jolt. He was half-dressed as he ran onto the command deck. Gon gratefully cleared way and took over another console. Mac got them clear of the debris field.

“So who were we supposed to pick up? Please tell me they weren’t on that moon. Or ship.” Vas scowled at the screen showing the shattered moon.

“Refugees from Zario, attacked a few days ago.” Gosta paused as his sensors brought in more data. “They were probably not on the moon, neither it, nor the planet it was circling were suitable for life, but that ship was theirs.”

Vas slammed her fist down on her console. The gray ships had never gone after refugees this aggressively. Not since Mnethe V.

So why chase them down and attack them again?

“Do we know anything about them? Zario’s a simple ag planet. Why would they want to slaughter them?”

Gosta ignored her question but pointed at something on one of his screens. “I’m actually picking up life signs on that planet.” He glanced up. “It was abandoned a few centuries ago. Not enough water to support life.”

“How many?” Maybe they had gotten off the population ship before it was destroyed.

“Not many. No more than forty or so. We could easily fit them in a shuttle to get them up here. Just long enough to drop them off somewhere else.” He added the last defensively. He knew how Vas felt about strangers on her ship.

She pondered the screen before her. A support ship from Home could be sent out, but she had no idea if the ships who did this would be back or not. This was something new for them. She needed to get the innocent victims of this oncoming storm safe. It was what Deven would have wanted. She let herself have a small smile at that thought. Deven would be proud of the work they’d done in the last two months. His credits from that last job had gone toward setting up another refugee planet to take the pressure off Home. Much to Grosslyn’s relief.

“Do it. Contact them and tell them we’ll be down with a shuttle. I want you, Terel, Flarik, and Nariel there along with a support team. We’re going to scan these people carefully before they come onboard. Understood?”

Gosta smiled then quickly dropped it. “Aye, Captain. We should be ready to go in half an hour.”

The refugees were right where they were supposed to be, not that there would be many places to hide. The landscape was covered in rubble, rocks, and refuse, but nothing taller than a small child.

The leader was a small older man of mixed heritage, appearing to be part Xithinal and part Silantian. An odd combination to say the least, but clearly harmless. Most of the people with him were even more so. Old people and young children, though no babies. Judging by their lack of belongings, they’d obviously been rushed off their home world quickly.

“I am Bhotia. Thank you for helping us.” He was gracious in his greeting, but kept looking over his shoulder.

Vas took his hand. “I am Captain Tor Dain. Might I ask what you’re looking for?” Her team spread out as they began interviewing and scanning the refugees.

“Something here has been hunting us. Ten of our people have been attacked since we were forced to flee down here.”

Vas pulled out her blaster and nodded for the rest of her team to arm themselves.

“How long ago? Is it nearby? What kind of beast?”

Bhotia shook his head, his neck folds old and mottled with age wobbled with the movement. “They were taken three days ago. I am not sure, but I believe it may be a diflin gaul.”

Xenobiology wasn’t her field. “Terel, have you heard of a—”

Vas’s question ended in a scream as out of nowhere a mass of weight, claws, and teeth slammed into her and tore open her left side. She swung around and got it off shortly, but the brute was huge and was easily three times as heavy as she was. Her first blaster had been ripped out of her hand on impact, but she grabbed the other from its holster and fired point blank into the thing’s scaled chest. She heard the others shooting at it as well. The creature dug into her a few more times before it finally shuddered and collapsed on top of her.

Yelling and screaming pierced the air as Vas fought to stay conscious. After what felt like hours the pressure on her torso lifted and the animal was rolled off of her. Terel dropped next to her feeling for broken bones and doing temporary closures on the gaping holes. Vas winced as stabbing pain flooded her when she tried to speak.

Terel shook her head. “Don’t. Your right lung is punctured. I can fix it, but we have to get you on the ship.” She looked over her shoulder and her frown deepened. “Damn it, Bhotia says this isn’t the only one. We’ve got to get everyone out of here.”

Without waiting, Terel slid a hypospray into Vas’s neck. Vas tried to fight back. She didn’t want them just loading everyone on the ship. But darkness crept along the edges of her vision. Suddenly a new form appeared on the edge of her sight. Reaching out for her.

Deven.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Vas swore as the world went sideways. She had to stay awake. That was Deven. She knew that was Deven! The part of her that was still rational pointed out that her former second-in-command had been blown apart two months ago. However, he looked awfully good for a dead man. The drugs wouldn’t let her keep her eyes open and she felt them roll back in her head. Damn it.

****

Gosta watched Vas twist as they transferred her into a medical bed on the
Warrior Wench
. She was barely alive from the injuries and yet she was fighting the coma drug like a tiger. He could serve with her for a hundred years and still not figure that woman out. She finally started to lose consciousness, her eyes focusing on something far beyond him. “Deven,” she muttered, then was out.

Terel turned toward Gosta. “What did she just say?”

Gosta felt a sad pang well up. He never knew if Vas had realized how she felt about Deven. However, Gosta knew. “She called out for Deven.” He frowned as a dark thought hit him. Some cultures felt you saw the dead when you were dying. “Tell me the truth, how bad is she?”

Terel’s face crumbled. “Not good. That beast shredded her up inside. A traxliann gaul shouldn’t have been there.”

Gosta frowned. “Agreed. We didn’t lose anyone, but it wasn’t for lack of that thing trying.”

Terel fixed more long-term tranqs for Vas. “No, I mean it really shouldn’t have been there. And Bhotia claimed it was a diflin gaul. Those could survive on such a world, but they’re smaller, more scavengers than predators. This one is a traxliann gaul. They’re water creatures. This planet is too dry. If we hadn’t killed it, it would have died in a day.”

“So how long had it been there?” Vas had tasked Gosta to resolve her growing collection of mysteries. She wasn’t going to be happy to find out yet another had appeared.

Terel soothed Vas’s forehead as the stronger drug kicked in and slowed her heartbeat. “I’d say no more than a few hours. It couldn’t last more than a day in that environment. Someone didn’t care, nor did they care that it would be obvious this wasn’t a natural attack.” She tapped her chin in thought, her humming going up an octave. “You brought the body on board, right?” At Gosta’s nod she continued. “Make sure to keep it in secure storage. I’m going to check and see what else we can find out from it.”

Gosta nodded, then went to the medical comm. “Gon, make sure to keep that monster in a cool bin. Terel will need to conduct studies on it.”

“Aye, Gosta. Not sure why she’d want to. But I’ll go back and secure it.”

“Do you need me for anything else?” Gosta hated to leave his captain, but in this area he knew his presence wouldn’t help. Besides, perhaps he could use his library and find some answers.

Terel glanced up and blinked owlishly. Obviously she had already dismissed him. “No, we should be fine.” She reached for his arm. “I wouldn’t mention the captain calling out for Deven to anyone. Even her, unless she remembers, which I doubt she will. She needs to let his shade rest, even in her heart.”

Gosta nodded sadly. “Agreed.”

****

“Deven?” Vas was obviously losing her mind. The shape in front of her looked just like her second-in-command. Rather, her
late
second-in-command. The man turned around. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, just low-slung loose white pants. New spider-like scars covered his torso. His face was mostly left untouched except for a few thin scars on his right cheek that ran from the corner of his eye to his jawline. He was standing in a bank of fog; actually, they both were. She couldn’t see anything except him.

“Vas? Oh, gods.” The man who looked like Deven took two steps forward and grabbed her arms. With an intensity Vas really didn’t think one would feel in the afterlife, he kissed her until her knees went weak. Literally. He had to catch her before she went down. Again, something one wouldn’t think would happen in the afterlife.

“So it was you? Or rather it is you.” Vas’s thoughts were jumbled even to her. She knew she wasn’t awake.

“Am I dead?” she asked the stunning apparition before her. If so, at least she was going to have good company.

Deven steadied her feet. “No, but you’re not far from it or I wouldn’t be reaching you like this.” His green eyes bore into hers trying to search for something. Finally he shook his head. “It’s no use. I can’t read you on this level.”

Vas glanced down at his wrists automatically. “Your bracelets….”

“Were destroyed when the Fury blew up,” Deven said without regret.

“So then you are dead. However, I may not be. Yet. But you are.” Vas nodded. “Of course you are. You’re a figment in my dream. My dying dreams, if figments can tell those things.” She started looking for a way out. Maybe if she found her way out of wherever here was she’d regain consciousness.

Deven ran a finger down her cheek, smiling when she leaned forward. “Trust me, I’m not a figment. And Vas, I am alive. Don’t ask how, I can’t tell you. But I came back from the explosion.”

Guilt hit Vas hard. Deven and Jakiin had survived? And she’d left them?

“No. Don’t feel that way. I was dead. Sadly so was Jakiin, and he’s gone. I stayed dead long enough that even Terel would have had me buried if you had retrieved what was left of my body.” He put a finger over her lips. “I can’t explain how. I’m not sure myself. Nevertheless, I am alive. You just have to find me. But first you have to live.” Frustration deepened the new scars on his face. “I can’t tell what’s wrong with you though.”

Vas rubbed her arms. She couldn’t stop looking at Deven. Deven. Her Deven. “I think I fell in love with you.” Crap, oh crap. That was not what she meant to say. Ever. Even if this being before her was only a bit of her dying mind.

Deven’s eyes went wide, and then he pulled her close again. “I thought so too. I mean, I felt that way too. Still do. I didn’t think you.…”

Vas stiffened her arms to hold him back. “Okay, let’s not go there. I’m dead, dying, or about to get that way. You were dead for quite a while apparently.” Her eyes narrowed. “Waitaminute. That time that Terel almost buried you. You really were dead, weren’t you? Not in some healing coma?”

“Yes, I was dead. What could be called dead. For most people.”

“No, not what
could
be called dead. Did your heart stop?” Vas waited until he reluctantly nodded. “Then you were dead.”

“And you aren’t yet.” Deven shook her. “Vas, what is going on? What was the last thing you remember?”

Vas racked her brain. “I was in the infirmary. Gosta and Terel were there. Terel…damn it, Terel knocked me out again. She needs to stop doing that.”

“It’s for your own good.”

Vas waved her hand at Deven, pacing around the vague space. It really was like nowhere, vast and gray with nothing to show top from bottom. “So she keeps saying. But that’s not it. Something else.…” Vas snapped her fingers. “That last group of refugees.”

“The Mnethe V group? What about them?”

“No, not them.” She stopped pacing and peered at him. “You do realize you’ve been dead two months, right? We kept picking up refugees and relocating them when we could. It wasn’t to honor you or anything, just seemed like the thing to do. Things are getting weirder out there. More dangerous, and not in a good way.”

Vas drummed her fingers on her chin as she tried to get back on track of the elusive memory. “That was it. We were going after a small group on Hkjsg. You know how I hate desert planets, but that was where they got chased to so that was where we went. Anyway, when we found them, they claimed they’d been stalked for days by this monster, a diflin gaul they said.

“Then this thing lunged out of nowhere. Huge monster. Reptilian skin, long snout, odd little legs. But it could run faster than anything I’ve ever seen that wasn’t a machine.” A shudder racked her. “I didn’t even have a chance to get off more than one shot, and that was after it was on me. It was trying to feed on me when the others killed it.”

“How long did the refugees say it was chasing them?” Deven’s eyes were intense.

“A few days, why?” Vas couldn’t figure out what was making him so worried.

“Vas, diflin gauls don’t sound like what you described, but traxliann gauls do and they can’t live on a world like Hkjsg. Anything more than a day at the most and they would die. Someone planted that thing there to go after you. And those refugees had to have been in on it.”

“I’ve got to wake up.”

Deven nodded, his eyes deadly now. “Yes, you do. And you’ve got to live.”

Vas waited a few moments, but nothing changed. “Okay, so what do we need to do? I’m still here and while you are literally a sight for sore eyes, those refugees might be taking over my ship as we speak.”

“Our ship.” Deven corrected with a smile. “I don’t know. Even in my rather long life I’ve never communicated like this with someone. I’ve no ideas on how to get you back there; I’m not even completely sure how I was able to call your spirit here.”

A loud buzzing sound overtook his words and Vas felt herself being pulled away. Deven didn’t seem to notice at first then smiled. “Save yourself, save the crew. Then find me.”

“You didn’t tell me where you were,” Vas screamed as he became smaller and smaller.

“I don’t know.” The response was faint but clear.

Vas was still swearing when she woke up.