Moonstruck (25 page)

T
HE ENGINEER’S URGENT VOICE
sliced through the tense standoff on the bridge. “Sir!”

“Yes,” Yarew said at the same time Finn replied, “Aye.”

“A shuttle just departed Bay Six. Pehzwan input the docking release code.”

Rakkelle. She was escaping. Had he been that wrong about her? He thought he knew his instincts better than that. “Put them on-screen,” Finn bellowed.

The image came to life on the large holo-vis. “Rakkelle,” he yelled in disbelief. “What in the freepin’ hells are you doing, woman?”

She smiled her impish grin, wriggling fingers at him as the shuttle pulled away.

Yarew spun to the weapons officer. “Blow that damned shuttle out of the sky.”

“No!” Finn shouted. “I override that order. Lieutenant Keyren is with her.”

Yarew’s head jerked back around. “By the gods, she is.”

Hadley’s blond head was side by side with Rakkelle’s dark one. “If you can’t find her,” Brit’s assistant said, “we will.” She reached up, closing the connection. The holo-vis went dark.

“T
HEY’LL SHOOT US DOWN
,”
Rakkelle said, shrugging. “Oh, well. I always figured I’d go out in a blaze of fire.”

“They won’t shoot at us.”

“Yarew’s a trigger-happy son of a bitch.”

“Warleader Rorkken isn’t. He won’t let him do it.”

“Don’t be so sure. He’s not too happy with us Drakken right now.”

“I’m here. He won’t hurt me if he thinks it’ll hurt the admiral.”

“Yeah?” Rakkelle’s glance was perceptive. “I thought there was something going on between those two. The warleader looked like a lovesick hound puppy every time she called his name.”

She flipped the shuttle on its wing, banking around hard. Then she slammed the throttles forward and they were off. “Lucky Bandar,” she mused as they raced away from the huge ship. “I’d have wanted a little bunk time with the good warleader myself. He never would. Propriety, he’d tell me. Didn’t seem too important to him with Bandar, though.” She made a noise of annoyance.

“You’d want bunk time with anything with a cock,” Hadley muttered as her mood went south. “Or maybe I’m limiting you too much. Maybe you go both ways. Don’t ask me, though. I’m not interested.”

Rakkelle sighed. Her small hand tightened over the throttle. “He needed a fuck, Hadley.”

“I would have slept with him last night.”

“He didn’t want that. He wanted a fuck. Don’t you understand? He didn’t want love. He didn’t want
feelings.
”

An image of Tango’s pumping bare butt returned. She winced. “Was he any good?” She couldn’t believe she’d asked but sick curiosity demanded she find out what she’d missed.

Rakkelle shrugged. “I’ve had better.”

“Bolivarr?”

The pilot laughed. “Hells no, not him.”

“Why not?” Hadley blurted out, vastly relieved to learn what he’d told her was true. “He’s hot.”

“The wraith is the kind of man who falls in love.” Rakkelle shuddered. “Love. It’s freepin’ annoying. You can’t shake ’em loose. Then when you fuck someone else, they start screamin’ at you. Who needs it?”

Hadley looked over at her. “You’ve never been in love?”

“Nope.”

“Neither have I.” She thought of Bolivarr recovering in the hospital, sleeping now, at the last report, and wondered if her loveless status was about to change.

That was, if she survived this last-ditch search for Admiral Bandar.

All they had to go on was a shuttle ping, a faint ion trail and a prayer. What they were going to do when they tracked it to the source remained up in the air. Raid a fortress? Fight Drakken hand-to-hand? Hadley steeled herself as she touched a hand to her pistol. If that’s what it took, she would.

“Ooh! We’ve got a ping-back already.”

“Yes…” Hadley whispered, sitting up.

Rakkelle changed heading. “It’s damned close, too. What did they do, hand-deliver her back to us?”

Hopefully not dead. Hadley’s hopes chilled.

“Freep me. Look.”

On-screen a shuttle floated in space. Hadley zoomed in on the craft. “Goddess. It’s her.” Fear spilled over, cold and sickening in her stomach. Seemingly naked under a blanket thrown over her midsection, Admiral Bandar was slumped, unconscious, in the pilot’s seat.

“S
TAY BACK
!”
Finn shouted to the others, clustering around the docked shuttle that Rakkelle had towed in. He wanted some level of privacy for Brit as he entered the shuttle with a large, soft robe.

She was naked and smeared with dried blood across her torso and between her thighs. He wanted to die, seeing her condition, but her nanomeds were making fast work of any external wounds. They were unable to help the internal ones, however. Only he could do that. She’d been beaten and raped and gods knew what else. He’d spend the rest of his life helping her heal from this, he vowed.

“Finn,” she murmured to him, lifting a weak hand.

“Ah, sweetheart. I’ve got you. You’re safe now, love.” Fighting his swelling emotions, he wrapped her in the robe and extricated her from the seat, carrying her through the corridors to the med ward.

A cheer went up as they passed. The crew loved her; there was no denying that.

Yarew trailed the group along with his Coalition cronies. As long as Finn held Brit in his arms, he was safe from arrest.

“Everyone out,” Dr. Kell ordered.

Brit’s hand brushed Finn’s uniform. “He stays.”

“You heard the woman, Doctor. I’m stayin’.” Even if Brit hadn’t spoken her desire to have him at her side, he wasn’t sure he’d have left.

“Finn…” Brit’s fingers scratched weakly at his uniform as the doctor began his examination.

“Hush now.” He stroked her hair back from her forehead, feeling his chest fill with rage at her attackers. He better understood the hate she felt after Arrayar—and he hadn’t even lost her.

“Call headquarters,” she said thickly. “Tell Zaafran. Now.”

“I will. We’ll tell him. Soon.”

“No. Now. No time.” As weak as she was, her voice held the power and confidence of command.

Captains never wanted to care for themselves. It was a fact of ship life. “Patience, sweetheart. We have to concentrate on you now.” He stroked her hair, aching at the sight of her bruised cheek. How good it would feel, crushing the windpipe of the man—or men—who did this to her, aye, and in his bare hand. Monsters. For Brit, knowing her background, it would have been a singularly horrifying experience. He still couldn’t fathom how she got free of them. “We’ll find them, we’ll hunt them down. Have no fear of that.”

“Contact Zaafran.” Brit’s fingers found his collar and pulled. For her condition, she had an amazing amount of strength. “That’s a freepin’ order, Warleader.”

Finn sat up in shock. She was half-alive and issuing orders as if she were on the bridge.

“They weren’t Drakken. Not Horde. They were Coalition.”

Finn jerked upright. Gods, he’d been right. The so-called settlers were Coalition troublemakers pretending to be Drakken.

“He needs to know before people die for it.” She swallowed. “Before Drakken innocents die for our sins.”

Dr. Kell heard her, too. He put down his scanners. “You say we did this to you?”

“Fanatics did. They kidnapped me to start a war. They knocked me around a bit, they spoke in mock accents. It was all a show to make me believe they were Horde.”

“She wasn’t raped,” the doctor confirmed. “There’s no sign of penetration. No foreign bio-cells.”

Brit’s eyelids fluttered. “Thank gods. I didn’t know. I was beaten unconscious….”

“Are you absolutely certain, Brit?” Finn asked. No matter how much he’d like the blame to be on the other side, the truth was too important. Galactic peace was at stake and gods knew he wanted to see the end of war. He was born in war; he wanted to die in peace—many, many years from now, a content old man. “How could you tell?”

She let out a small laugh. “Easy. They didn’t stink of those awful skins.”

P
ATCHED UP
and back in uniform, Brit took command of the bridge. Only a few bruises told of her scuffle with the fools who’d kidnapped her. Lingering weakness dragged at her, but blazing anger made it easy to ignore. “Star-Major Yarew—report!”

He appeared in the entrance of her office. His skin was pale, his body language broadcasting his discomfort. Good. The more he suffered, the better.

“How are you feeling, Admiral?”

“Much improved, thank you.” She sat back in her smart chair. “At ease, Star-Major.” She waved at the seat opposite her desk.

Swallowing, he nodded in gratitude and sat down. The chair lurched sideways, spilling him.

Brit brought her hands together, resting her fingers against her lips to keep from laughing outright. “One would think after all these weeks on the
Unity,
you’d have mastered the art of sitting down.”

“I have—there’s a malfunction, apparently,” he blustered as he leveled the chair.

She leaned forward. “Bullshit.”

His face lost what little color it still had. “Admiral?”

“Evidence of your tampering with the smart chair programming was easy to find, once engineering knew what to look for. You’ve been scrambling the codes for Warleader Rorkken since he set foot on this ship.”

He opened his mouth to protest. “I—”

“You will not speak without permission,” she snapped in her coldest admiral’s voice. Rising from the desk, she clasped her hands neatly at the small of her back. The entire bridge crew looked on through the glass. “A little inter-civilization rivalry is to be expected at a war’s end. While I don’t approve of your rigging the chairs, it hurt little more than the warleader’s pride. It was mischief, plain and simple. Yes?”

He swallowed. “Yes, ma’am. My apologies.”

She stopped in front of the officer, making sure she held his gaze in the steel-hard grip of hers. “In contrast, giving proprietary codes to traitors looking to destabilize the galaxy is treason.”

“But, Admiral, I—”

“Permission to speak
not granted!
”

The smart chair rocked as he tried to stand.

“Nor is permission to stand,” she hissed coolly. “You’ll be doing plenty of both once your war crimes trial commences in the High Royal Court on Sakka. You had us believing in a terror threat that caused us to depart the Ring prematurely, unprepared and understaffed. You knew the attacks on the settlers were committed by Coalition masquerading as Drakken. You aided and assisted them, all while keeping information from me, your commander. You are what’s sick with the galaxy. You, who hate to the point of blindness. The war may be over, but ridding the stars of the likes of you is only just beginning.” Her voice turned even colder. “If I’ve learned one thing in my life, it’s that monsters come dressed in many different uniforms.”

As do angels.
Brit turned to the bridge where three sharp, Triad-uniformed guards waited: one Drakken, one Coalition and one Earthling, just as she’d requested. “Take him to the brig,” she ordered the guards.

“But I acted in the interests of galactic security,” Yarew pleaded with her, a guard tugging on each arm. “I did it for our future. Our glory.”

She replied with a brief, disgusted wave of her hand. “Get him off this bridge and out of my sight.”

As Yarew was led away, the main holo-vis came to life, revealing a grand view of the Ring. The image dissolved into one of Prime-Admiral Zaafran. He nodded. “Admiral.”

She nodded back. “Prime-Admiral, sir.”

They’d been in and out of discussion ever since the drugs the mock Drakken had pumped her with had faded enough for her to think clearly. “The conspirators are in custody,” he informed her. “And Yarew?”

“The same.”

“Excellent.” Zaafran’s expression softened to one of respect borne of their long years working together. “I owe you, Brit. We all owe you. The entire galaxy. Or maybe,” he said, his dark eyes crinkling in amusement, “we owe your nose.”

She laughed at the irony. “I never forgot that smell. When it struck me that the odor was absent on their ship, I knew the cowards weren’t really Horde. The one masquerading as a battle-lord was particularly pitiful. He injured his cheek just to appear scarred!” All so she, the most well-known of Drakken haters, could be “rescued,” telling all of her story of horror, making her an unwitting accomplice in what would have amounted to a full-scale massacre of Drakken, and likely civil war.

The thing was, she’d never been very good at being unwitting…except perhaps where falling in love with Finnar Rorkken was concerned. That had blindsided her.

As the holo-vis went dark, she aimed her smile at Finn, who was sitting comfortably in a smart chair that now listened to his every whim. His eyes twinkled with mischief.
My rugged, wicked boy.
She’d been hunting Drakken most of her adult life. Now it was time to settle down with one.

She turned away to brush a hand along the window as she took in the vista of stars. So many worlds. Once, they were like pebbles to be turned over to see what vermin lay hidden underneath. She was done with that; her hunt for Horde was over. All the killing in the world wouldn’t bring back Seff and the children. Twenty years of battle and she was no closer to erasing that loss. Love would make it easier to bear. Love would help her
heal.

Finn appeared at her side. Her hand brushed against his but did not take it. They were, after all, professional military officers on duty. A furtive, tender touch was all they’d allow themselves. “It’s over,” she said as they gazed out at the stars. “My mission is complete.”

“Am I hearing you right, love?” he asked under his breath. “Is Admiral Brit Bandar considering retirement?”

“Not exactly. Prime-Admiral Zaafran has a plan for me—for us.” She pressed a finger to her smiling mouth. “I’m hoping you like it, too.”

H
ADLEY WAS AT
Bolivarr’s bedside as soon as Dr. Kell cleared him for visitors. “Try to keep his heart rate down,” the older man pleaded before letting her go inside. Grumbling something about frisky young people, he went to attend to Commander Rothberg, who was improving steadily. He’d recover fully.

“I heard your memories came back.” Nervously, she perched on the bedside chair.

“Dr. Kell says it was the kiss.”

“Really?”

He smiled. “He didn’t say. But that’s my guess.”

She wrung her hands. “And…?”

“I’m not married.”

She expelled a loud sigh of relief. Then she lowered her voice. “What about being a virgin?”

“That’s for me to know, and for you to find out.”

“Bolivarr,” she protested.

His smile was almost regretful as he shook his head. “I guess I’m not.”

“The girls must not have been too memorable, though,” she said with a small pout.

“Not at all. Not like you.”

“But we haven’t…”

“I hope to remedy that one day.”

“‘One day’ sounds so far away.” She’d hoped he’d put her out of her virginal misery much sooner.

“When we arrive in port, I have to travel to the Royal Military Hospital on Sakka. I had a suppression device installed. It’s blocking secrets I’m not supposed to remember. They—I—want to know why.”

“The people who put it in you are probably dead.” It made her sick to think of beautiful Bolivarr used as a tool for the warlord, much like the coalition’s now-banned REEF assassins.

“They probably are, Hadley. I want it out. I don’t want anything they made to be inside me. I want a normal life.” He reached for her hand, holding it between his as he rubbed her fingers. “I don’t know how long I’ll be. I might need surgery. There will be recovery time, perhaps therapy, depending.”

“I’ll wait for you,” she whispered. “I will.”

Joy flashed in his dark eyes that were so much more animated now that the suppression device had malfunctioned. “Besides, I promised to help out with your, ah, little problem,” he said with a mischievous slant of his mouth. “If you’ll want me to.”

“My first time will be with you, Bolivarr.” Despite Dr. Kell’s warnings, she leaned over the bed to kiss him. She wasn’t halfway down when the wraith pulled her down the rest of the way to his mouth.

His pulse must be off the charts, she thought, because hers sure was. Goddess, the man could kiss.

“Uh-oh,” a male voice said.

In an Earthling accent.

Hadley sat up, smoothing her mussed hair off her forehead. “Hi, Tango.”

The pilot was clearly flustered. “Rothberg kicked me out of his room for some cute little star-lieutenant. So I stopped by to see how Bolivarr was doing. I guess good, huh.”

She smiled sweetly. “Really good.”

“Good. Great.” He backed toward the door. “I’ll leave you two to your, uh, visit.”

He disappeared out the door. Bolivarr and Hadley looked at each other and laughed.

B
RIT ORDERED
Hadley to her office. “It’s about time you got here,” she said sternly when the girl arrived.

“Sorry, ma’am. Is there something I can get you? Water? Wine?”

Hands clasped behind her back, Brit paced in front of her desk. “I understand that you and the warleader had a conversation about my white box.” She stopped, eyeing the girl. “And what was in it.”

Hadley seemed to crumple. Then she recovered, standing taller. Good, Brit thought. She’d showed a lot of grit on her brilliantly conceived and executed mission with Rakkelle, but she still needed to develop more spine. She would, in time. “Yes, ma’am.” Hadley pressed her lips together. “I looked in it only once, the day I moved your things from the
Vengeance
to here. I’d worked for you for so long, but I never really knew you. I wanted to.”

No one knew her before. Now, yes. Then, no.

“You are my hero, Admiral. I’d never do anything to hurt you. What I did was wrong, snooping, seeing things I didn’t understand.”

“Sit down.”

Hadley all but fell into a smart chair. Then, with her gaze on the stars, Brit told her of the keepsakes in the box, of Arrayar and what transpired in the years afterward. No, not the worst of the details, but enough for the girl to understand who she was. Enough to know her.

Hadley sat quietly in the chair. Sorrow creased her forehead and tugged on her mouth. “It makes my presumptuousness in opening the box—and telling Warleader Rorkken about it—all the more appalling.”

“Because of what you’ve done, I’m going to have to send you off the
Unity,
Hadley.”

The lieutenant’s shoulders sagged, and again she recovered. She stood, nodding. “I understand, Admiral.”

Brit walked toward her. “Put out your hand.”

The girl hesitated.

Brit sighed. “I’m not going to bite it off!”

Hadley extended her hand. She looked ready for her punishment. Brit dropped two epaulets into her palm. “Congratulations, Captain. You’re the new commander of the
Cloud Shadow
. You often told me of the clouds on your homeworld, and how they raced across the sky. I thought the name would fit a small, swift vessel.”

Hadley’s mouth had dropped open. With the tip of her finger, Brit pressed on her chin, closing it. “No, it’s not the most awe-inspiring ship name as ship names go, but we did all right with the
Unity,
don’t you think?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she whispered. “Oh, my goddess. My own ship. My own command.”

“One that you richly deserve, owing to your brave and timely actions the day I was abducted. She’s a small cruiser, but many don’t ever have the chance to command a ship of any kind.”

“I know, Admiral. Oh, I know.” Hadley brought the epaulets to her lips and kissed them. “You’ve made my day, Admiral. You’ve made my
life.
”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“No, you have.” The girl’s blue eyes shimmered. Then she threw her arms around Brit.

Brit closed her eyes and hugged her close. Her daughter would have been close to Hadley’s age, had she lived. Gently, Brit took the thought and tucked it away. It was time to start a new life.