Moonstruck (24 page)

There were more Drakken soldiers than I could count who wanted a piece of you. I’d hear them talking in the bars. I’d hear the comm chatter. All of them wanted to catch ol’ Stone-Heart. They wanted to be the ones to break you. It would not have gone well for you if you were ever captured.

Thinking of Finn’s words would serve only to psych her out. She needed to stay clearheaded; she needed to keep fear at bay. “This won’t help the Drakken assimilate into the Triad. My kidnapping is going to cause a backlash. Is that wise at this stage in the peace process?”

“Assimilate?” He hissed the word. “The Drakken and the Coalition will never be at peace. They will never be as one. Ignorant bureaucrats, thinking unification is the answer to war. Power is the answer. Absolute power.”

“Drakken power?”

He wrapped her hair around his fist and pulled her half off the chair.

“Thought so,” she muttered.

“Starting with you—in our control.”

“Having a fleet admiral in custody gives you no edge. Ransom is never paid. Deals aren’t made. Not even for me.”

“We shall see. In the meantime, you’ll serve as a little entertainment between the skullings.”

Her stomach rolled. But there was something off here, aside from the obvious. She just needed a minute to wrap her mind around what was happening….

He jerked her forward. The bones in her neck made muffled pops. She tried not to wince at the flare of pain. “You’ll amuse me for a bit, then I’ll send you back home. Your broken body will inspire fear and awe. A Drakken specialty, yes? It will go a long way to resurrecting our former glory.” His smile widened. “Meanwhile, let’s play until you begin to bore me. You’re not boring, are you?”

He forced her face close to his. His kiss was hard, merciless, the pain it caused her fresh wounds sharp. Stupid Drakken. She sucked his lower lip between her teeth and bit down hard.

He roared, shoving her away. The chair slammed into the wall. Pain exploded in her head and everything went blank.

“A
DMIRAL
,”
Finn paged, trying to reach Brit. She didn’t answer her PCD. He caught up to Lieutenant Keyren as she ran alongside Bolivarr’s smart-stretcher. The sight made him queasy. Young officers taken down in the prime of life was unfortunately getting to be a common sight on this ship. “Where is Admiral Bandar?”

“I thought she was on the bridge.”

“No. She’s late for her shift. Changeover came and went—she never showed. She never called in. I left Yarew in charge, thinking she was here with you and Bolivarr.”

“I haven’t seen her since the debriefing, Warleader. Have you?”

“Aye.” He gave her a sharper look. “I saw her and the white box.”

The girl paled. “Goddess. Do you think—”

“No. The end result was good, very good.” He touched her arm. “Thank you,” he said with gratitude.

The stretcher veered into the triage room, where Dr. Kell immediately set to work on Bolivarr.

“I think it’s the poison,” Keyren cried.

Kell had Bolivarr’s vitals on-screen within seconds. An analysis of his blood scrolled across a data-vis. “It’s not the poison.”

“What is it, then?” the lieutenant asked.

“To put it in a nontechnical way, something strange is going on in his brain.”

Finn jerked his focus to the scanner the doctor moved over the unconscious wraith’s head.

“There were signs of abnormal brain waves in his initial examination,” the man said. “They’re gone.”

“Is it bad?”

“Quite the opposite, I think. My feeling only. It may have been due to some sort of thought-suppression technology. I’ve heard of such techniques employed by the Drakken.” An awkward glance in Finn’s direction told him the doctor had only belatedly remembered Finn was, in fact, Drakken. It was a good thing; the doctor thought of him as crew first. It was more than he could say about some of the other Coalition officers, namely Yarew. “It’s not unlike what was done to our REEF assassins before the procedure was banned. If the suppression has malfunctioned, Bolivarr could very well recover his memories after this.”

Lieutenant Keyren made a sound of pleasure, grasping Bolivarr’s hand. She murmured under her breath, “He didn’t feel married.”

“I’ll have none of that,” Dr. Kell said, shooing the young officer away. “Go, go, both of you. Out of my exam room. I’ll comm you as soon as I hear more.”

They obeyed, leaving the physician to his work. “Call the admiral,” Finn directed Keyren.

“Admiral Bandar, Lieutenant Keyren.” She repeated the call to no avail. “She’s probably on the lightball court. She always takes her PCD off when she plays.”

“When she’s supposed to be on duty? That would be unusual.” Then again he’d upset her with the contents of the box, and the memories that accompanied it. Could she have had a delayed reaction? “Find your uniform and get dressed.”

“Yes, sir.” The girl bobbled a bit on her feet.

“Have you been drinking, Lieutenant?”

Her blush gave him his answer. Probably drinking and carousing. But with Bolivarr? The night was getting stranger and stranger. “Get yourself a metabolizer from the infirmary and help me search for your commander.”

A
SWEEP OF THE SHIP
,
and two visits to Brit’s quarters had Finn gripped with worry. She was nowhere on the ship, it seemed.

“Admiral Bandar, report to the bridge,” the comm-bot intoned up and down the corridors. Finn had set the ship-wide call on automatic. It had been paging for half a standard hour now. There was no freepin’ way Brit could miss hearing it. She was either ignoring the calls, or she’d disappeared. The former was doubtful. The latter was insanity.

“How can the commander of this ship simply vanish?” Finn demanded, storming onto the bridge. Leaning his weight on his hands, he hunkered down over a data-vis, scanning the comings and goings of the evening. “I show a shuttle launch at twenty past the last hour. Who was it?”

Yarew joined him at the data-vis. “That wasn’t part of your exercise?”

“No.” A chill ran down Finn’s spine. “The exercise ended the hour before. You knew that.”

“I actually did not.” The intelligence officer’s eyes were cold.
Drakken,
they sneered.
Horde.
“I was off duty and sleeping—as I should be now, if not for you and our admiral traipsing about the ship, and you being where you have no right being.”

Finn grabbed his uniform shirt in his fists, about to throw him backward when good sense came back. He opened his hands, releasing the officer. The entire bridge crew stared at him.
Drakken! Horde!
He knew what they were thinking, and he couldn’t blame them, after witnessing his aggression. Then there were the Drakken staring, too. He’d punished them for acting Drakken and what had he gone and done? Acted like a barbarian himself!

He maintained a steady tone, if anything for his own people, his teeth gritted. “The fact is, Star-Major, Admiral Bandar is missing. I would like to see you with some sense of urgency about locating her.”

“I am feeling urgency. The difference is that I’m professional about showing it.”

Finn’s fists clenched. With effort, he kept them at his sides, despite Yarew’s deliberate provocation. This wasn’t the deck of a Drakken warbird, or a pirate ship. This was the TAS
Unity,
and he was damned well going to act as if he belonged here. And there were more important issues at hand than a troublesome intel officer. The focus must remain on locating Brit.

“Run a check on every crew member,” Yarew directed the watch officer. “I want to know who was where at the time we estimate contact was lost with the admiral. Report all abnormalities to me.”

Better, Finn thought.

“Get me an ion wake trace on that shuttle,” Yarew continued, putting Finn’s mind further at ease.

Rothberg and Bolivarr were the two crew members he’d have chosen to send around the ship hunting for answers. Both men were in comas. Who could be used instead? He didn’t trust Yarew, and many of the other crew members didn’t trust him.

Zurykk. Finn had scarcely utilized his former second-in-command since coming to work on the ship. Brit’s disappearance changed all that. He lifted his hand to his PCD. In light of the feeling of dread in his gut, it was time to call on his oldest friends if he stood half a chance of seeing Brit again.

“T
HE ADMIRAL ISN’T
the only one missing,” Yarew said, shoving a data-vis in front of Finn’s eyes. “Seven settlers are gone.”

The seven latecomers to Goddess Reach. Freepin’ hells.

“They didn’t outrun a Drakken ship. They
were
Drakken. They connived their way aboard in order to kidnap Admiral Bandar.”

“Drakken…How could I have missed it?” He should have been able to spot a Drakken, with or without tattoos and pierced ears. Had he distanced himself so much from his past that he could no longer recognize his own kind?

The thought was disturbing as all hells.

Yet…“Maybe, Star-Major, a better question is how you missed they were Drakken. Maybe they weren’t.”

The intel officer snorted. “And you accuse
me
of bias?”

Finn rubbed his face with an unsteady hand. Wishful thinking wouldn’t return Brit to him. He couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea of her being held prisoner by the Horde, not after learning what he had about her past. Not after hearing how many Drakken wanted to punish her for years of military successes against them. “How did they manage to board one of our shuttles and fly it away, not knowing the departure codes?”

“They had inside help from your people.”

Finn narrowed his eyes at Yarew’s accusation. “Not my people. Not mine.”

“Are you sure, Warleader?”

“Aye, I’m damned sure.”

“Perhaps you’ll reconsider once I show you the results of the crew bed check. Cadet Pehzwan shows out of her quarters at a quarter past. She never returned. She is the only crew member not accounted for. I’m putting in an order for her arrest.”

“Zurykk,” Finn said. “Find Rakkelle.”

“Security,” Yarew said. “Locate Cadet Rakkelle Pehzwan and take her into custody. Charges—treason.”

“Disregard that order,” Finn told security.

Yarew’s gaze smoked with outrage. “I outrank you,” Finn informed him briskly and in a tone that invited no argument. “Zurykk, find Rakkelle.”

“Follow that order, and I’ll have you arrested, too, Zurykk,” Yarew snapped.

Zurykk paused, caught in a tug-of-war between the
Unity
’s two senior officers.

“Star-Major.” The threatening note of warning in Finn’s voice grabbed everyone’s attention, and most notably Yarew’s. “If there are arrests to be made, I make the call.”

“I have evidence enough to arrest all of you Drakken.”

“Don’t go there, Star-Major,” Finn warned. It wasn’t so much that Yarew accused him of treason as it was he’d lose the ability to help find Brit if he was sitting helpless in the brig.

“Cadet Pehzwan is missing under suspicious circumstances, Warleader. Will you keep me from finding her and questioning her, or will this be mutiny?”

“She was with me,” a voice called out in an Earthling accent.

Major Barrientes strode onto the bridge, his uniform wrinkled, and looking as if he’d dressed hastily. “I can vouch for Rakkelle. She was in my quarters. All night.”

Next to Finn, Lieutenant Keyren cleared her throat softly. A sideways glance showed her to be blushing furiously, her eyes downcast.

“And we’re to believe the word of one Earthling who can’t hold his alcohol?” Yarew demanded. “I override your order, Warleader, based on threats to galactic security. The arrest will be made.”

On the holo-monitor, two guards left their station, headed in the direction of Rakkelle’s quarters.

“She was with me.” Tango turned pleading eyes to Hadley.

“He’s telling the truth,” the lieutenant said after a moment’s hesitation and with some reluctance as her gaze locked with Tango’s. “She was with him during the time in question. I saw them together.”

“Pehzwan drops in for a screw in order to have an alibi,” Yarew said, dismissing Tango’s claim. “So what? Everything else lines up. Note, Warleader, I have made a career of putting together facts and drawing accurate conclusions. A highly successful career. I have every reason to suspect Pehzwan assisted the seven settlers in abducting Admiral Bandar. The cadet is a shuttle pilot, a former civilian trusted with a level of security she probably shouldn’t have been given.”

“You question the admiral’s judgment in doing so?” Finn glared.

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, I do. I question her judgment in other things, too.”

Yarew knew what was going on between him and Brit, Finn realized. Lieutenant Keyren had suspected it, as well. Was there anyone on the ship who hadn’t figured it out?

“Our admiral has somehow been taken off a ship in a shuttle that requires proprietary codes to leave the docking bay, Warleader. How else do you propose that this happened?”

“I don’t know.” Finn scrubbed his bristly jaw. Nothing was clear anymore. Brit was missing and he could do nothing to help her but chase after ions and play a guessing game as to who took her and why. Every moment he wallowed in confusion, she remained in danger, mortal danger. He’d die if anything happened to her.
Think,
he urged himself.
Think hard.

“Hey! Get your freepin’ paws off me, you goons.” On the holo-vis, the guards were pulling Rakkelle out of her quarters. Dressed in a flimsy long tank over bare legs, she looked thin and helpless against the much-larger men. Aye, but she fought back with her whole heart, nearly unbalancing one of the guards.

Lieutenant Keyren ran off the bridge. She’d liked Tango. Had the knowledge of his tryst with Rakkelle proved too much for her? If so, he was disappointed in the officer. He’d thought her more professional that that. Stronger.

Finn stalked across the bridge to the navigator’s panel. “Any signs of the shuttle?”

“Looking, sir.”

“Look harder.”

Zurykk was right behind him. “Are ya going to let them arrest her, Captain?”

“For gods’ sake, I’m not your captain!”

“No, you sure ain’t. Not anymore. Abandoning yer own people. Maybe it’s them who got to her? The Coalition. Did ya ever think of that? They’ve more to gain in war than in peace. They always have.”

They’ve more to gain in war than in peace.
Finn had been telling Brit no different for weeks now. The Drakken people benefited from a cessation of hostilities. Some Coalition die-hards couldn’t abide by that. Too many years of assuming a victory would be replete with a final drive to the Empire’s center, leaving billions dead, a civilization broken. The way it had happened instead was a toppling of the warlord from within, a people’s victory—done for the Drakken by the Drakken. Not so satisfying if you were on the conquering side.

He thought of how he’d taken the skins away from his crew, how he’d banned grabble and then the sweef, too. He thought of how hard he’d come down on them, and for what? For being what they were supposed to be? They weren’t monsters. They were Horde. The terms weren’t mutually exclusive, no, but neither were
Coalition
and
monster.
Cruelty existed on both sides. Wherever fanaticism existed, so did hate. What had happened to him? What had he done?

“Aye,” he admitted under his breath. Zurykk’s eyes grew wide. “Harboring prejudice against my own people makes me the same as that bastard,” he whispered. Blind bigotry that may have cost Brit her life.

Finn turned away from a relieved Zurykk to face Yarew. His epiphany filled him with calm and purpose, helping him to see more clearly what had transpired since he’d come aboard the
Unity
. Yarew had been working at cross-purposes with him since the moment he’d set foot on this ship. “I gave you a piece of metal I found on the sand on Cupezikan. I asked that you investigate. What came of it?”

The question appeared to shock the man. He’d taken the piece and hoped Finn had forgotten it; that fact was painfully clear. “It belonged to a Coalition weapon, didn’t it, Star-Major?”

Yarew’s face darkened. With fear or with fury, Finn didn’t know.

“Well, Vinn?”

The entire bridge was silent, listening in on the conversation. “We will continue this discussion in the office, Warleader.” Yarew sneered.

“No. We will continue it here in front of our crew. Our unified crew. Where is that item?”

“I discarded it. It was nothing.”

“You threw away evidence?” With Brit now likely being tortured and possibly killed because of it? Finn girded himself against the acute pain filling him with images of the love of his life hurt and bleeding. She wouldn’t give in to her captors and it would cost her. “You didn’t want that piece to be found because it proved rogues were behind the attacks. Rogue Coalition, not Drakken!”

Gasps went around the bridge.

“They took her and handed her over to Drakken raiders, Yarew. You allowed it to happen. You want the unrest it will cause.”

“This is unacceptable, Warleader! This is mutiny. Security—take Warleader Rorkken to the brig.”

No one moved. They didn’t know who to follow. A telling sign, that.

“You debriefed those seven settlers privately before we did. You logged your findings in a report. What did you leave out?” Finn slammed a hand on the holo-vis table. “What did you leave out?”

“W
ATCH HIM,
H
ADLEY
,”
Bolivarr had warned her about Yarew.
“I don’t trust him. That’s all I’ll say for now.”

He’d been right, Hadley thought. Yarew was hiding something. He knew what happened to Admiral Bandar and she was going to make damn sure no further harm came to her hero. For that she needed Rakkelle.

It was a crazy risk. Hadley could be wrong, and it could mean the end of her career. The trouble was, she was betting on being right. She’d been ignoring her instincts too much lately and learned the hard way the consequences of that. It was time to trust her gut. How many times had Admiral Bandar emphasized the importance of following her instinctive feelings and not a rule book? More than she could count. Now she
was
following her gut—maybe straight into hell.

Goddess keep her.

Hadley hurried down to the brig deck, where Rakkelle had been brought. A guard stopped her before she got past the watch station. “Admiral Bandar’s orders,” she lied calmly, years of practice behind those three words. “Cadet Pehzwan is to be confined to her quarters, not the brig.”

“Admiral Bandar said that?”

“We’re in contact with her now.” Hadley could lose her career over that lie and be convicted of treason if her actions endangered the admiral or the crew of the
Unity
. Somehow, she knew she was on the right path. Or maybe she was just stubborn. Goddess no, she was right.
Trust in yourself.
As a shuttle pilot, and one prone to flying “outside the box,” Rakkelle had to know how to “ping” another shuttle, and that’s how Hadley intended to locate the missing shuttle—and the admiral! To the uninformed, pinging was merely a locate-and-avoid feature designed for collision safety when shuttles zinged in and around a larger ship. But there was another use for it: locate and
find.
The pilots on the
Vengeance
would talk about playing hide-and-seek, illegally. The best pinger always won. She prayed with her whole soul that Rakkelle liked to win as much as Hadley suspected she did.

The guard noted the event on his data-vis and let her through. In one cell, the Drakken raiders they’d brought aboard sat around a table. They looked clean and fed and bored. Hadley jogged past empty cells until she came to Rakkelle’s.

The pilot turned to her in shock as Hadley tapped in the door release code. “You’re coming with me,” Hadley urged. “We’ve got to stop a war.”