Asarlai Wars 1: Warrior Wench (5 page)

 While the officers and primary crew of forty-five or so stayed on the
Victorious Dead
, the grunts all lived off ship on a large, yet very empty, world Vas had won with her first major battle. It didn’t have much land mass, a few small continents scattered across gigantic oceans, but it was all hers. Keeping the fighting force intact and on call made her fighters happy. Many of them had families and this way they could be with them in a secure location. Vas herself even had a house there. Moreover, she made a point to visit it at least once a year.

Vas rubbed her hands across her face as fatigue pressed at her again. She let her eyes slide shut and kept them that way.

She felt Deven's presence next to her as he sat on her bed. She’d never noticed his smell before today. Light and green, as if a forest imp from Gflasia sat next to her. A very big forest imp—she fought to keep from sliding into him as the side of the bed went down under his full weight.

“You sure that will be enough?” He said.

Vas slid over further, but didn't open her eyes. “We’re taking point, but in terms of bodies our participation will be minor. We have other fights coming up in a few months, and I don't want to commit too many to this one.”

She'd expected Deven to get off the bed, but he stayed still.

“You scared the hell out of me.” His voice dropped so low that she popped her eyes open to make sure he had spoken. “You died out there.”

The intensity in his eyes rattled her, but she forced a smile. “Good thing I had you to save me then. Now can you please get the rest of our merry bunch together?” She let her eyes slide back shut. Maybe he’d leave her alone if he thought she needed sleep. She kept her life as drama free as possible. Right now those green eyes were screaming drama. They were saying other things as well, deeper things. But she really wasn’t dealing with that right now. Something had changed in Deven or in her during the time they’d been apart, and she didn’t think it was a good something.

Deven's weight lifted off the bed after a few minutes, but Vas waited until the door closed before opening her eyes.

Terel glanced at the recently shut door, then to Vas and slowly arched her left brow. Vas held up her hand at the other woman. “Whatever you’re thinking of saying, don’t say it. I need to get us all on track and get my damn ship back.” She waved a finger when Terel took a breath to argue. “No, nothing.”

“I have no idea what is lurking in your psyche, and I’m sure I don’t want to know. I just wanted to tell you Gosta and I have synthesized the treatment that should eventually chase the remaining poison out. The fact that no one has survived a poisoning from a drell longer than a minute after activation actually gave us a number of options.” From the look on her thin face, she hadn’t intended to say that at all. She’d clearly picked up on whatever Vas was trying to ignore between Deven and herself.

Vas frowned, but refused to be embarrassed at the implication. She’d never reacted to Deven in a sexual manner. Never mind his looks and charm, he was a telepath and a crewmember. Which violated the only two requirements she held fast to for lovers—not an esper and not a member of her crew.

However, that changed when she first saw him in the casino tonight. Nothing extreme, just an awareness of him that hadn’t been there before.

It scared the hell out of her.

However, even Terel’s status as her best friend didn’t entitle her to that information. Shaking the contraband thoughts out of her head, she turned back to the issue at hand. “Give it to me and let’s move on.”

Terel’s eyes danced as she came forward with one hand held behind her back. “It’s not one treatment. We’ll have to give you injections for the next few days to get your system cleaned out and back to normal.” She pulled her arm forward as if presenting a great medical discovery. “With this.” The weapon she held up had to be longer than an infantry fighter’s sword.

“What do you mean—injections? What the hell is that thing?” Vas tried crawling to the end of her bed, but gave up when she figured Terel could reach her before she could move far enough. “Where is the hypo spray? Why more than one? Nothing needs more than one.”

Terel’s grin went feral enough for Vas to rack her brain for anything antagonistic she’d done to the doc lately. She winced when a few items came to mind.

“This is called a needle. It’s what our ancestors used to inject things into a body. I need something more invasive than a hypospray. It must be multiple times because it won’t stay in your system without constant boosters.” Terel held up the needle to Gosta. “Isn’t it great? I read about these in bio-med school. Never thought I’d get to use one. Luckily, I bought a few from a local midwife as souvenirs.”

Vas flung herself off the bed and hit the floor on all fours. “You’ve never used one of those things? What if you do it wrong?” She scrambled to her feet and grabbed her pillow to brandish at the advancing doctor. However, her grip was so weak it tumbled out of her hands.

“I do know what I’m doing.” Terel stopped in front of her and folded her arms. “Do I tell you how to run your ship? What about the Company? No? How about you let me do my job and I’ll keep letting you do yours.” She grabbed Vas’s arm and swabbed a section of skin. “I won’t say this won’t hurt; it will. But nothing compared to what you’re used to on a battlefield.”

Gosta picked that moment to drop a book. Terel stabbed Vas with the wicked needle at the same second.

Terel nodded toward Gosta who bowed, his double-jointed knees lending a unique flair to the old-fashioned move. Both of them headed toward the door. “You’ll feel the effects soon. However, you need to sleep. You should be ready to board our new ship in the morning. Being as you lost our old one.”

“I didn’t lose it, damn it,” Vas said around a huge yawn. “Waitaminute, what is in that stuff?” Her eyes were dropping faster than a drunk after a week on clearvac.

Terel gave an evil grin as she paused before closing the door. “I knew that even as tired as you were you wouldn’t sleep. The sedatives in the syringe along with your treatment will assure me otherwise.” She flashed a genuine smile this time. “Good night, Vas.”

***

Vas fought to wake up as a giant with a bad hangover picked up one end of reality and shook. However, the pounding came from inside her head, not outside it. Lifting her head was a painful experience.

Falling back into the mattress, Vas muttered about revenge-driven doctors. Eventually the pounding dropped to a dull thud. It still hurt, but her head wasn’t shattering and the black dots in front of her eyes were gone.

At least Terel’s treatment gave Vas the strength to go after Terel and give her a piece of her mind about the resulting headache. On second thought, if the headache was going to hit this hard each treatment, she needed to stay on the doc’s good side.

“Better?” Gosta’s dry voice entered an instant before he lumbered into the room. Probably a safe approach if he had an inkling of how she felt right now.

“Not much. Doc needs to give me something for my head.” She sat up and slowly got out of bed. “At least I can move now. Any luck tracking how I got this drell crap?”

Gosta’s long legs clicked softly as he strode closer. “Not yet. Terel and I will have to use the computers on the ship.” He cocked a ragged black eyebrow at her. “The new ship does have a computer system, yes?”

She turned her back to him and put on a clean shirt, clearly one Terel had found, as she hadn’t brought anything down to the planet with her. “Of course it does.” She glared over her shoulder at Gosta. “In fact, I hate to say it, but the system looks better than ours. When you check it out, see what things we want to take with us when we get the
Victorious Dead
back.”

She had just finished lacing up her boots when Deven came in.

“We’re mostly accounted for. A few took some convincing to move fast enough, but we’re here. Xsit sent someone to go find Mac and Jakiin, but they can’t be far. No one in town will rent them a vehicle after the last time they were here.” He folded his arms and scowled at the room. “This is the only room that’s not ready to go.” The tone in his voice made it clear that whoever he had been during his extended vacation here, he had mentally returned to being her second-in-command.

“I couldn’t disturb her, you know.” Terel pushed him through the doorway and wandered over to her workstation. “No worries, I can get my lab packed up in minutes.” Terel set up her lab everywhere. Vacations were just a time for her to play with it more. She turned to Vas. “Where is the shuttle anyway?”

“At the main landing pad, just past the casinos. I didn’t want to bring it closer until we were ready to head out.” Vas said. A sound idea that she now regretted. Time would be lost getting the shuttle to the pad outside the shantytown and they’d already lost time with her poisonings. Both of them. She counted Terel’s ‘cure’ a second attack.

Terel bustled around picking things up and fitting them into tiny boxes. “Well then, Second, I’ll have this lab picked up before you return.” She gave Deven a curt nod and went back about her business.

Deven looked ready to say more, but instead shook his head and stomped out.

Vas laughed. “You two are back to getting along famously, I see.”

Terel had most of her equipment taken apart and boxed already. “I will repeat this again, it is not my fault that he got buried. I can’t be responsible if people have physiological abilities that they choose not to share with their doctor. Even though I’m the one who has to save their lives. Even if my say so can keep them breathing or leave them in a pile of dust. No, some people don’t feel that I need to know that they go into a shallow breathing coma to repair major injuries.” She threw a small box with particular force, but it still landed perfectly in the pile near the door. She pointed another box toward Vas. “He’s damn lucky that his species card insists on a ground burial. Being buried alive is far better than what could have happened. He would have been dusted long before he could recover.”

Vas took the box from the doctor’s thin hands and carefully laid it on the pile. Even with Terel’s amazing aim and leveraging skills she didn’t want to take a chance with a box of vials in her current agitated state. “Hey, I’m on your side. He didn’t tell me either.” She shrugged. “He doesn’t hold you responsible. Not really.” Vas knew that at this point the battle between her second-in-command and her doctor was more for show than anything else.

“Not that I care. He can huff and puff all he wants. But it will be nice when he accepts his mistake,” Terel said as she made a final pass to make sure all of her belongings were removed.

Vas started to respond when a huge explosion rocked the room and knocked her to the floor. Scrambling to her feet, she grabbed the snub blaster on the table next to her. This time she knew the explosion didn’t come from inside her head.

Chapter Four

Vas ran outside with her blaster primed. She had no idea who would be stupid enough to attack a shantytown, but she was willing to show them the error of their ways. Not that it wouldn’t possibly improve the place. Her crew had chosen to stay in one of the shabbiest towns she’d ever seen. She really couldn’t understand them sometimes. They made good money, but usually chose to stay low-end when planet-side. Even if the larger gambling town wouldn’t have welcomed common mercs, there were far better places than this one.

The only evidence of a disturbance was a sickly plume of green smoke at the far edge of the village. She couldn’t see what caused it as it came from behind the only part of town with multi-storied buildings.

“Gosta, come with me. Terel, secure the landing area in case Deven comes in.” Vas returned to the doc’s lab and grabbed the rest of her weapons.

Her crew rushed out of their quarters, buckling on their weapons while they ran. It appeared that most of them had kept their wits through their extended vacation.

“Gosta, you, and the flight squad follow me. The rest of you split up. Half stay here, half go with Terel.” It might be nothing. However, considering all the nothings that had turned out to be somethings lately, she didn’t want to take a chance.

Aside from surprised muttering from the locals, Vas didn’t hear anything coming from the smoky area. That held promise. In her experience, bad things were often noisy.

She slowed to a walk as she rounded the corner. While she didn’t know what to expect, she knew it wasn’t the scene in front of her. Her two missing pilots stood there covered in green soot, poking at a smoldering pile of rubble with a stick.

“Mac? Jakiin? What the hell have you done now?” Vas held up her hand before either could talk. “Wait.” She turned toward the people behind her. “Gosta, take everyone else back and make sure everything is ready for Deven.”

Not waiting for a response, she jogged forward to the interesting tableau before her. She didn’t like interesting. It often changed from interesting to painful to deadly without so much as a by your leave.

Jakiin and Mac continued rummaging about the mess in front of them, but faster. They also tried to rub off the green soot from their faces. Mac even had dusty smoke drifting up from his strawberry blonde head.

Taking a deep breath, Vas switched into full merc captain mode. Whatever her officers had done, they most likely shouldn’t have been doing it. If they weren’t two of the best pilots in seven galaxies she would have spaced them long ago.

“What the hell did you do?” As she strode forward, Vas cursed herself for changing into Terel’s shirt. The thing was pink, for crying out loud. She normally didn’t care about clothing, but there were some times it mattered. Such as getting her pilots out of whatever trouble they’d dove into. Trouble didn’t follow these two; it stalked them like a jilted lover.

Mac wiggled his sunburned nose. “Our product had an accident.” Mac’s voice came out quick and high pitched, never a good sign with him. One of the few pure humans on her ship, he appeared out of place with his pale skin and light strawberry blond hair. The kid didn’t have the coloring or temperament for lying. However, he seemed to be the last to realize that.

“What product?” Vas sighed. Mac and Jakiin were always trying to get rich. Pathetically, as officers on her ship for the last ten years, they could have been rich, if they would stop spending money on get-rich-quick schemes.

Jakiin shuffled his feet and Vas shifted her glare to him. The thin Foorlian usually let his partner in crime deal with everything. If Mac’s coloring didn’t suit a life of swindling, Jakiin came from an entire race of failed liars. Pale, hairless, and frail looking, his double lidded eyes had a constant look of surprise. Or abject terror.

She got closer to the wreckage. “A still?” She rubbed her eyes and wondered how hard it would be to replace Mac and Jakiin. “You built a still. On a gambling planet.” With each sentence she took another step toward her pilots. She thought Jakiin turned whiter, but with his coloring she couldn’t tell.

All of the gambling planets tightly controlled their alcohol. They didn’t want to take a chance that someone started serving watered-down stuff. The casinos counted on their patrons to be drunk; drunks let go of money, money made the casino owners happy. The patrons were happy because they had free, and very potent, booze. Even if they quickly had no money.

“Which one of you wants to explain this? And which one of you wants to spend a week in the brig?”

Mac and Jakiin practically split their guts trying to tell their tale the fastest.

She needed more time to deal with them, time she couldn’t spend planet-side.

“Never mind. Both of you can tell Deven when we’re on the ship.” She waved at the smoldering mess behind them. “But first take that thing apart and destroy it. You have ten minutes or we leave without you.” She started to walk away, leaving the two pilots furiously ripping metal pieces apart. “No shortcuts. I will be conducting a fly-over before we head back to the ship.”

She made her way to the shuttle landing pad and the rest of her people; carefully ignoring the odd and curious stares the locals threw her way. More than likely a new R&R planet should be picked out for future down time. Her people had been a little too interesting lately.

***

It had taken far longer than expected, but Vas finally got her command crew, Mac and Jakiin included, on the shuttle and headed toward the space station. It was a bit tight in the shuttle, but all she needed was body space for her crew. They didn’t have to be comfortable.

Deven approached the command chair. “When are you going to tell them?”

Vas took her eyes off the star field before them and smiled. “When we get there. Telling them now will only annoy me. We can’t change it, and I think even Mac and Jakiin will notice.”

Vas entered the rest of the codes. Mac swore as she took over his controls completely to do so. Normally entering the codes would be his job, but since he’d be entering the ones for the wrong ship, she took over.

A squeak in the chair next to her told her that Deven had taken his seat although he hadn’t the entire ride to the station.

“What?” Ignoring him wouldn’t work, perhaps terseness would. She prided herself on her ability to stay focused; it kept her and her crew alive many times when they should have been slaughtered. However, Deven was still messing with her focus. Once they got to their new ship, she was going to have to set up an appointment with her ship’s mind doc, Nariel. Find a way to block whatever she was starting to feel about Deven.

“Vas, we need to talk.”

That was not what she needed right now. Her previous drug-induced sleep didn’t leave her rested and it was taking everything just to stay functioning at this point. She felt as exhausted as she had during the fifty-day siege they’d led on the planet Salis two years ago. Without the perk of getting paid.

“Ya know what, no, we shouldn’t.” She ran her hand through her long, snarled, red hair and grimaced. “I’m sure whatever it is, it’s important. However, things have been going far worse than usual lately. I know we need to talk about whatever it is we need to talk about. There’s always something that needs talking about. Something deep, meaningful, and that will no doubt provide me with insight into my poor self.” She folded her arms and glared at him. He retaliated with a smirk that could have knocked out a dozen suns. “What?”

With a grace envied by professional dancers, Deven levered himself out of his chair. “I wanted to tell you we’re docking.”

A bump as a docking bracket slid against the side of the shuttle jolted Vas back to the screen.

Muttering a few swear words, she completed the docking. By the time she unbuckled herself from the harness and sent the last codes to the control tower, Deven had herded the crew out to the space station dock.

For a large group, her crew could move with surprising silence when the situation demanded it. They failed to demonstrate that today. Honestly, by the amount of noise they made you’d think they’d never been on a station before.

Mac jogged up to her, his pack slung over his shoulder. Soot still hung around his eyes and hairline. It was probably the cleanest he’d been in weeks, although his strawberry blond hair had a new green tinge.

“Captain, why did you take over? I didn’t drink that moonshine,” he said with a frown. “We couldn’t get the damn thing to work before it blew up.”

Vas ran her fingers through her hair again, still hitting the same knots. She either needed to cut it, remember to keep it in a tighter braid, or find a crew that didn’t exasperate her.

“It had nothing to do with that. But, I do….” Vas let her words trail off in shock as she realized Mac dared to look away as she spoke. Snap pilot or not, he was a dead man. With a growl she turned around to see what could be so important he’d risk his life by ignoring her.

The damn
Warrior Wench
hung there gleaming for the whole crew to see. There were no other ships in dock.

“That’s the
Warrior Wench
. What in the eight hells of Glaxion V are we doing here?” Bathshea said out loud. The engineer had never been shy about her opinions, or anything else for that matter.

“Um, is that supposed to be named after you, Captain?” Jakiin would be joining his partner in crime in death. Soon. That someone would make that joke had been a given. She didn’t think it would be one of her own people.

The instant the words were out of Jakiin’s mouth, the entire crew froze.

“You didn’t say that.” Vas kept her voice low but watched as the crew, including Mac, stepped away from Jakiin.

“I made a joke?” Jakiin stepped backwards, his hands held up to ward her off.

Stupid git, as if hands would stop a blaster. Or a sword for that matter.

Luckily for her, Deven stepped behind Jakiin. At least now she wouldn’t have to waste energy chasing him. A mercenary’s worth consisted of her reputation. If her own people were making that connection between Vas and the ship’s idiotic name, things did not bode well.

“Say you made a stupid mistake, Jakiin.” Deven spoke softly.

“I know what he said.”

Deven’s green eyes met hers. “I’m sure he meant nothing by it. Right, Jakiin? Beg the nice captain for your life
now
.”

Jakiin seemed ready to jump off the gangway and take his chances at learning to fly before he hit the bottom. “I...I...I….”

Vas stalked away from him. Killing petrified idiots didn’t sit right with her. Even if he deserved it. Old age had made her soft. Funny, she hadn’t felt old a month ago. The previous Vas would have sliced Jakiin and tossed him over the railing before the last word cleared his lips. Or at the very least punched him. However, as much as she hated to admit it, he wouldn’t be the only person thinking it. Nor would he be the only one saying it. At least none of the rest of her command crew would be stupid enough to make that mistake again. They could spread it to the grunts when they hooked up.

“You live. For now.” She turned mid-step as an idea came to mind. “But Deven gets to watch out for you. The entire campaign. You’ll answer to him, and he’ll have new tasks for you each day.” Her grin grew while she watched both men’s faces cloud over; neither of them liked babysitters.

She marched over to her ship. “Yes, boys and girls, we have a new ship. No, I won’t discuss it. As you just saw, I’d recommend you don’t discuss it either.”