Atrophy (19 page)

Jensen bought him another beer at half time and tried talking stats with him, but since he’d been on Erebus for so long, he was out of the loop when it came to those sorts of things. Rian and Callan joined them a while later, counting the money they’d won.

Kira and Lianna drifted back to the table as the football game drew to a close, telling Rian that Zahli had stayed on the dance floor.

Tannin looked to where a good number of people still moved in time with the music, but in the shifting lights and bodies, he couldn’t see Zahli anywhere. Did her decision not to come back to the table have anything to do with him, or was that wishful, selfish thinking?

The IWL match ended with booing from surrounding tables, the Suns had gotten smashed by the Jets and the locals weren’t happy.

Rian stood, knocking back the dregs of his beer. “Time to go.”

As everyone started toward the door, Rian caught his eye and nodded at the dance floor. “I’m going to find Zahli.”

Tannin hesitated as Rian walked off. Should he go and wait with the others, or help Rian look for his sister? It’d be quicker if he assisted. Not that speed made any difference, but after the night he’d had, he was looking forward to getting back to the
Imojenna
and the quiet solitude of his quarters.

He caught up with Rian at the edge of the dancers and looked for Zahli’s familiar figure, spotting her on the far edge talking to another woman and two men, a half-empty glass of bubbling wine in her hand. He tapped Rian’s arm and pointed her out before making his way over.

“Zahli, it’s time to go home,” Rian said as they reached her.

Zahli turned, her movement unsteady and a little off balance.
Damn it
, how much had she had to drink?

“Rian.” She frowned at her brother and then looked over at him, her scowl turning into an icy glare. “You know what? I don’t want to go back to the ship. I’ve made some friends and we’re having drinks. This is Shae.” She pointed at the woman and then motioned to the men. “And this is Benson and Dane.”

Rian rested a hand on his belt, right where his knife was usually sheathed. “You know the rules, Zahli.”

“Yeah, I know the rules, and I frecking hate them.” She flicked her gaze over him and then drank some more wine.
Ouch
. Message received.

Her brother reached out and plucked the glass out of her hand.

“Hey! I’m not finished that yet.” She tried to grab it but he tipped the remnants down the chute of a service-bot and then set the glass on the tray as the robot glided away.

“It looks like you’ve had more than enough.”

“I’m sick of you and your—”

“Please, Zahli, let’s go.” Tannin reached out and took her hand, trying to gently pull her away from the other three people.

He’d already been involved in enough scenes tonight and didn’t want to add a drunken argument to his growing list. And by the look on Rian’s face, his patience had started wearing thin. Tannin wouldn’t have been surprised if the captain just picked her up and carried her back to the ship.

Despite wanting to keep his distance from her, he still couldn’t stand the thought of something distressing her.

Zahli wrenched her hand from his grip and pointed a finger at him. “Don’t you
please
me, Tannin!”

Under other circumstances, he might have found her words amusing. She’d been asking him the exact opposite only an hour or so ago. But Benson and Dane were crowding closer, looking like they wanted to pick a fight. Tannin hadn’t planned on getting into a bar brawl on his first night out with the crew. Of course, he also hadn’t planned on getting drunk or kissing Zahli. Christ, at this point a fight might improve things.

“She’s having fun, why don’t you just leave her alone?” one said. Benson or Dane, it was hard to tell since Zahli hadn’t clarified.

“Because I said its time to leave.” Rian’s posture tensed, the latent air of deadliness around him increasing by the second.

Tannin moved closer to Zahli, catching her attention and ready to whisk her out of harm’s way from either her brother or the two morons behind her. “Zahli, this isn’t going to end pretty and you know it.”

She glanced at Rian, and then over her shoulder at the two men behind her, and her attention seemed to sharpen.

“
Fine
. Back to the ship we go.” Sighing, she pushed between Rian and him, shoving him square in the middle of the chest with her palm as she passed.

Rian glanced at him in exasperation then gave Benson and Dane a death stare. If they were thinking about picking a fight, they’d have to be brain-dead.

Tannin fell into step behind Rian and Zahli winding their way through the crowd and stopping at the bottom of the stairs as Rian collected his weapons and strapped them back on, keeping hold of Zahli’s and pissing her off even more.

Up on the street, the rest of the crew waited. Callan and Lianna took point as they headed back to the ship.

Tannin shoved his hands into his pockets; it’d gotten a lot colder. As they walked, he noticed Rian glancing backward every now and then. After the fourth time, Tannin paused and waited for him to catch up.

As Rian approached, he flicked open his holster and palmed his pulse pistol. “You know, some people just don’t know how to take a hint.”

Tannin tensed, freezing in place as his lungs stalled. Was Rian finally going to blast him into oblivion? But no, the captain turned and fired two rounds back along the street. The sound of breaking glass tinkled jarringly, echoing off the opposite buildings.

Without an explanation, he sauntered along the path he’d aimed his pulse pistol, keeping his weapon drawn. Callan brushed past, a gun in both hands, but Tannin couldn’t get his feet to work; his system had shut down. His heart hammered like a piston.
Christ
. Had he actually started thinking Rian wasn’t that demented after all? If the guy didn’t happen to turn around and kill him one day, the captain’s antics would send him into heart-failure. Any second now.

The girls hurried back past him, and he heard Kira muttering, “Now who’s he gone and shot?”

Forcing a deep breath, Tannin got his body cooperating with his mind and strode over to where Rian dragged a man out of a destroyed shop front. Broken glass, bits of paper, and other debris littered the street.

Callan grabbed another man’s shoulder, steering him over to join the guy Rian held. A streetlight caught the men’s faces—the two guys they’d pulled Zahli away from at the bar.

“Mind explaining why you’re following us?” Rian jammed his gun against the neck of the guy he held.

“Her.” The guy Rian held nodded at the priestess. “She’s got a two million hard credit bounty on her head.”

Tannin glanced down at Ella, her expression neither worried nor surprised. Goddamn, he’d be on the verge of a coronary if someone told him there was a bounty out for him with a price tag like that.

Just who in the hell was the priestess, and why was she worth so much?

“So you’re frecking bounty-hunting cocksuckers,” Callan said, jerking the guy he held until the man winced.

“No, we’re UAFA agents.” The guy Rian was holding brought up one hand and made a show of sliding it slowly into his jacket and pulling out his commpad. He tapped his thumb on the screen and a holo-image of his UAFA ident came up.

“Jezus, Rian,” Jensen swore. “Can’t you ask someone their name for once before you go blasting them? I doubt UAFA will look too kindly at you shooting their agents, even if you are a war hero.”

Yeah, the Universal Armed Forces Agency was kind of pedantic when it came to the sanctity of their agents. UAFA were a privately owned military hired out to worlds, systems, or corporations—they had no allegiance, so were often used as an impartial third party during conflicts. They’d made up the ranks for the IPC during the Assimilation Wars, and after the battles finished many soldiers had joined their force, making them almost as powerful, if not more so, than IPC officers.

Rian released the guy with a hard shove, making him stumble. He stepped back, nodding for Callan to let the other agent go as well.

“I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself before.” Rian holstered his gun with unhurried movements. “My name is Rian Sherron, and this is my crew.”

Benson and Dane shared a concerned look between them.

“I’m sure right now you’re remembering every story you’ve ever heard about me. Let me save you the trouble of wondering and tell you they’re all true.” Though he’d put his weapon away, Rian kept his palms on the grips of his gun, the gleam in his gaze nothing short of lethal. “Whoever you think has a bounty on their head here, you’ve got the wrong person. We understand each other?”

The two men nodded, backing up a few steps.

Rian returned the nod seeming satisfied. “Let’s go.”

He turned, leading their party away from the two agents, not even sparing a glance for Ella, though for her part, she still didn’t seem all that concerned.

Tannin sighed as he followed after everyone, his head starting to throb from the heavy beer. Things onboard the
Imojenna
kept getting more and more complicated.

Chapter Fifteen

Z
ahli got herself a chilled bottle of water, wondering what in the frecking hell had possessed her to drink so much aerated wine. Of course, the answer to that was simple: he sat at the galley table across from her brother, the two of them apparently getting along like bestest-buddies.

Turning, she held the icy bottle against her flushed face, her head beginning to ache. And she didn’t fail to notice the smug expression Rian sent her way.

With a glare, and what she hoped was a steady gait, she walked over and dropped onto the soft couch against the far wall of the communal room. Next to her, Callan flicked through entertainment stations, stopping on a music one which blasted out some kind of heavy drumming and electric guitar.
Fantastic
. Just what she needed. On the other end of the couch, Jensen looked up from whatever he was reading on his commpad and yanked the remote out of Callan’s hand to turn the volume down.
Thank god
.

“It’s only worth listening to if it’s loud.” Callan reached for the remote, but Jensen chucked it over the back of the couch, the small unit making a hollow clunking noise as it landed on the metal grate floor.

“I want to hear what they’re talking about.” Jensen nodded toward the table where Rian and Tannin were seated.

Good. That made two of them.

When they’d arrived back onboard, Lianna had said there was some kind of encoded message waiting for Rian and only a moment after checking his commpad, her brother had told Tannin they needed to talk and led him to the galley.

Now Rian was pouring himself a glass of Violaine while Tanning watched him expectantly. “After you told us how you were convicted, I contacted a friend of mine to check into the Ayden family.” Rian took a gulp of the hard liquor as a surprised look crossed Tannin’s face.

“Why would you do that?”

Rian shrugged one shoulder. “Partly curiosity, partly because I like to know who I’ve got on my ship. Mostly because I was suspicious.”

“Of me?” Tannin’s shoulders tensed.

“No, of the circumstances surrounding your friend’s death and the way you were convicted.”

Zahli sighed. Despite being hurt at the way he’d outright rejected her, the grim set of Tannin’s jaw pinched her insides. She pushed up from the couch and joined the pair at the table, sitting across from Tannin. He looked at her when she dropped into the chair, but she avoided his gaze. The night might have ended unexpectedly, but she was still angry at him.

She’d all but laid her heart out in the open for him and what had he done? Chosen her brother over her and trampled her hopes into the dance floor. They way he’d kissed her, she’d been sure he felt as deeply for her as she did for him. Yet he’d turned around and given her the
I care about you, but I don’t want to be with you
speech.

Okay, so partly she understood where he might be coming from. Rian had given him his freedom, a home, a place on the crew, and laid out the rules. She got that he might not want to go flouting ship regulations the first rotation on the job. But she meant what she’d said—some things were more important.

Something about Tannin touched her deep inside, somewhere she hadn’t felt before. She’d thought if she explained to Rian that they weren’t just messing around, he might bend the rules just a little.

But then Tannin had gone and blown away her idea. All right, so they hadn’t made a commitment, hadn’t really started anything, but he’d jumped ship at the first sign of trouble, leaving her thinking maybe she’d had the wrong idea about him and his feelings for her.

Rian pushed his hair back and folded his arms along the table edge, beads clinking against the surface. “After you were sentenced to Erebus, your friend Quaine, the one you said was responsible for killing Broc, had a falling out with his father. He was cut off from the family trust fund and left Barasa as well.”

“So?” Tannin’s expression had tightened, with a definite edge of hostility to it.

“So,” Rian repeated, stressing the word. “It seemed odd. I had my contact track Quaine down. He’s living hard on one of the outer planets. And apparently, he was all too happy to talk for the right amount of currency.”

Tannin’s features turned haunted. “What did he say?”

“Quaine claimed that his father was the one who killed Broc. He had this theory he’d done it to manipulate Broc’s father, Grand Chancellor Harlan.”

Disbelief crossed Tannin’s face. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Maybe not.” Rian poured himself another measure of Violaine. “Quaine claimed a few months before the murder, his father had some kind of mental breakdown—his personality completely changed overnight.”

“This sounds like a load of bullshite.” Tannin grabbed the bottle of Violaine and splashed some in an empty glass. “Isah Ayden killing Broc makes no sense.”

Rian leaned forward over the table. “Think about it. What happened after Broc was killed and you were sent to Erebus?”

“Isah Ayden became the Grand Chancellor and later moved up to be the High President. So what?”

Rian’s expression took on an impatient edge. “Who were the two main rivals for that position on Barasa?”

“Grand Chancellor Harlan because he already had the title and—” Tannin’s jaw dropped in shock. “My father.”

Rian took another swig from his near-empty glass. “What better way for Ayden to ensure he became Grand Chancellor? Kill one rival’s kid and have the other one sent to Erebus for the crime.”

“Frecking hell.” Tannin dragged a hand over his hair, looking totally stunned. “But Isah always told my father he didn’t want to be Grand Chancellor.”

“There’s an obvious explanation. When Broc was killed, Isah Ayden wasn’t human any longer.”

So Rian thought the High President of Barasa wasn’t really Isah Ayden, but a Reidar who’d shape-shifted and taken over the man’s life. But why? To take over Barasa? What could the Reidar possibly want with a single planet?

Tannin frowned and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the table. “You think a Reidar shape-shifted to look like Isah Ayden and took his place to become High President of Barasa? Then what happened to the real Isah Ayden? Don’t you think he might have had something to say about someone impersonating him?”

“The real Isah Ayden is probably dead. Over the years, we’ve gathered evidence of the Reidar taking over people’s lives for various purposes, but we’ve never come across one that’s replaced someone so prominent.” Rian poured the last of the Violaine into his glass, shaking out every drop.

Her brother looked over at her. “Mind heading down to the cargo bay and getting another bottle of Violaine?”

In other words, he had important business to discuss and didn’t want his baby sister around.

She grabbed her half-empty bottle of water off the table and stood, shoving the chair back harder than necessary. Her head ached, and Tannin had already used up her quarter of patience when it came to stupid men and the things they thought were best.

“You know what? Go get your own drinks,
Captain
. I’m going to bed.”

“Zahli—” Rian growled her name and stood, keeping his hands braced against the top of the table. Turning, she hurried away as her brother called her name again, anger smoldering her insides to ashes.

Rian’s heavy tread behind her on the metal grate flooring increased her pace, but he caught her arm just as she got out into the passage. Crossing her arms, she gritted her teeth as she faced him.

No matter how upset she got, her brother was the captain. She might push her luck every now and then, but when it came down to the wire, Rian would treat her the same as the rest of the crew. And that included disciplinary situations. As much as she wanted to scream at him like when they were younger, when their parents had still been alive, and before Rian had bought this garbage compactor of a ship, she swallowed the words and looked up at him, waiting to hear the lecture on treating him with the deference he was due.

“Zahli, what’s wrong with you? First I catch you drinking with some random Rim-lickers who turn out to be frecking UAFA agents, and now you’re giving me attitude. What’s your problem?”

“I don’t have a problem.” Her voice came out sounding flat and more than a little defeated.

“Yes, you do. You haven’t been yourself ever since we left Erebus. Since that scumrat came onboard.”

Tannin was about the dead last thing she wanted to discuss with anyone, especially Rian. The hurt and rejection she’d been trying not to feel all night, the pain she’d been ignoring with all that wine, came rushing at her, stealing her breath, tightening her throat.

“You’re right. I haven’t been acting like myself, but you’ll be happy to know that won’t be a problem after tonight.” She tried to walk away, but he stopped her again.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Did he do something to you?”

Frecking hell
. She blinked, her eyes stinging. She hadn’t cried in front of Rian since she’d been twelve. Why had she drunk that damned wine?

“No, he didn’t do anything. That’s the whole problem. Congratulations. You got yourself a new tech analyst.”

She pulled her hand from Rian’s grasp, moisture tracking down her cheeks, as if this night hadn’t been embarrassing enough. But when she stepped back from her brother, she caught sight of Tannin standing in the doorway of the galley, his gaze locked on her.

And now her humiliation was complete.

She spun and hastened toward the stairs, resisting the urge to run until she got to her quarters and could lock everyone out. She just wanted to have a steaming hot shower and fall into bed, to not have to think about Tannin or Rian’s obsession, or the fact she had no life of her own beyond running the trading-side of their adventures. And the very last thing she wanted to consider on top of all that was how she would face all of them in the morning.

R
ian was going to stab him again. Tannin could see it in the set of the man’s shoulders as he watched his sister disappear down the stairs.

Tannin tightened his fist where he’d braced it against the bulkhead, fighting every instinct within him that told him to go after Zahli, to make things right, to hold her and treat her the way she deserved to be treated.

Rian turned to face him, shoving his hair back with a sigh, beads on his wrist clinking slightly. “I’d like to kick your ass about now for upsetting Zahli. But it’s a bit hard to do when I assume you were apparently following orders.”

Tannin pushed away from the bulkhead and stepped further out into the passage. “I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be sorry, just go and fix it.”

A weird kind of exhilaration mixed with apprehension filled him. “Are you telling me the rule you filled me in on this afternoon no longer stands?”

Rian’s eyes narrowed as an annoyed expression tightened his face. “I didn’t say that, did I? This is exactly why the rule stands. We all have to live and work on this ship together. I can’t have crew at odds with one another. Relationships complicate things. People pick sides. Loyalties get divided. You never know what sort of shite you’re going to come across out there in the black, so we need to be able to trust each other. I’m sure there’s a better way you could handle this. One that adheres to the regulations and doesn’t leave my sister a blubbering mess.”

His moment of hope shot down, aggravation replaced the jubilant feeling. “She wasn’t exactly a blubbering mess. In fact, I seriously doubt Zahli would ever be a blubbering mess over anything.”

Rian grabbed his shirt at the shoulder and steered him a couple of steps along the corridor. “Just go fix it and get back here so we can finish our conversation.”

Tannin jerked from his grasp with a glare and stomped down the steps. Rian might as well have asked him to single-handedly go find every Reidar in the galaxy, because it surely would have been easier than fixing what was wrong with Zahli and him. The only way to repair this rift would be to give her what she wanted, what they
both
wanted. But that went against Rian’s damn regulations.

Arriving on the crew level, Tannin stopped at the end of the landing and dropped down to sit. He braced his elbows against his knees and looked down the passage to Zahli’s door. What the hell was he supposed to say to her? The sight of her tears had cut him deep, like someone had gouged into his chest with a blunt object. Far more painful than when Rian had stabbed him.

And that small realization broke something within him, bringing back her words from earlier in the night.
Some things are more important
. He’d spent the past twelve years confined on a prison planet, no freedom, no rights, no dreams. He’d only had survival and a drive for something other than that which had been unjustly thrust onto him.

What was the point of escaping, only to find himself confined in other ways? If he didn’t follow his heart, take what small measure of happiness he could grasp wherever and whenever he found it, he might as well have stayed on Erebus.

He stood, because the choice had been made. And when he thought about it, there really wasn’t any choice to begin with—he might fix it, but not the way Rian would want it fixed.

He didn’t bother knocking at Zahli’s cabin, but popped the crystal display off the panel to override the system. Locked, of course.

It took him less than a second to get through the security and have the door slide open in front of him to the gentle, slight tinkling of the bells hanging just inside. Clicking the display back in place, he slipped through the opening before the hatchway could close and lock.

The lights around the room were bright, but Zahli was nowhere to be seen. The only evidence she’d come in was a trail of her clothes starting just beside her bed and disappearing into the privy facilities. Maybe he should come back later, because Rian expected him back in the galley. But instead, he stepped forward and caught the sound of water rushing. Just across the threshold into the privy, he spotted a pink bra with little purple butterflies printed across the cups.
Christ
. As he moved farther into the room, he got the weird sense he’d stepped into a dream, one of those dreams he’d always wished were real, the ones where he woke up hard, aching, and gasping.