Salvage Rights (Distant Worlds Book 2) (19 page)

It was time to meet the
captain, Tyber Relian, who had delivered Danika so mysteriously to him.  It was
time to find out once and for all if the man deserved his thanks, or something
less positive.

Knowing she considered the
captain and his people friends, for Danika’s sake, he hoped he didn’t have to
kill the man.  Whatever his Bruha connection with Danika had changed in him, it
had not changed the ruthless brutality in which he had been honed from birth. 
If Danika assumed differently, she was about to be disappointed. 

Not that it matters,
Lucan
thought checking his blaster charge and adjusting his sword scabbard. 
Whatever
her objections to my methods, she will end the day in my bed regardless.

When Lucan hit the
conference room it was to find Tolan Lark and the crew of the Jezebel sitting
around drinking his booze.  Not exactly what he was expecting.  He looked at
Tuft who just shrugged his massive shoulders and directed the security force
from their strategic placement throughout the room.

Lucan pinpointed the
captain easily.  He sat with another man at the head of the table, the decanter
from the side bar at his elbow.  Giving nothing away other than boredom, his arms
were braced across his chest as he regarded the new arrivals as if they were in
his
conference room.  His dark brown eyes were sharp through the
facade.  This whipcord lean man missed nothing.  Lucan ground his teeth at the
sight of him, wondering why the man’s obvious good looks should bother him. 
Especially when the man sitting so stoically beside him was prettier, younger,
and sat like someone had jabbed a sword up his ass.  Lucan would have thought
military with that posture, but he lacked the muscle bulk common in the space marines.

Sitting on the table
across from the men, a woman wearing a very familiar ship standard had her foot
up on a chair, while the other dangled.  She was pretty with her light golden
hair and blue eyes, and the man who had the bulk to be a space marine stood
beside her, close enough you could feel the “mine” vibes from across the room. 
Unlike the rest of the crew, he looked pissed, his jaw tight, his eyes spitting
fire.  He clearly stood guard over the woman.

The last crewman was
something of a switch with his average build and spectacles.  He had dishwater
blond hair to match his light brown eyes, eyes that seemed to dissect
everything that was happening in the room.  Lucan would bet money this was
the
Doctor Henry Morgan.  None of the postures or looks suggested captured
prisoner.  He turned to Tolan Lark who was smirking at him while leaning in the
corner.

The man was the only
one in the room who still had his weapons.  As always he was a walking arsenal
in his customary skin tight nanite and knee boots.  He wore as many weapons as
Tuft, and behind his shaggy slightly gruff appearance, he had the eyes of a
predator.  Lucan had always been just the slightest bit on edge when he had to
deal with the man.  There was something disconcerting about dealing with a Shakien
warrior, not that he had dealt with many.  They tended to stay on their own
world and had no interest in dealing with outsiders.  They were known to be a
brutal savage race, ruled by their animal nature. Tolan Lark was the only
exception he had ever met.  Able to pass in most societies as a human mercenary
of dubious character, few even knew what he hid just below that very thin
veneer of civilized man, but Lucan was not fooled.  Even if he had never seen
that wild animal staring back at him through the man’s sapphire eyes, the way
he moved with feline grace and power would have given him away as something
more than human, but then most people saw what they wanted to see.

“I take it you had no
problem persuading the crew of the Jezebel to accompany you here?”

Tolan Lark stepped away
from the wall and lifted his hands up in surrender.  “I would love to let you
think I am this good, but the truth is they were already on the way back here.”

Lucan turned to the man
sitting at the head of his table.  “Captain Relian?”

“Before we get started
I would like to see Danika.”  The man’s voice was deep and devoid of
expression, but his words had Lucan tensing up. 

“And why would you want
to see the Lady Danika?”

“Let’s just say I will
have a better idea of who I am dealing with if I can see how she looks.”

“Who you are dealing
with is something you might have considered before you gave her into my care,
don’t you think?” Lucan asked mildly enough, even as his eyes gave warning to
tread carefully.

The barb struck deep if
Relian’s small wince was any clue.  Besides that and a tightening of his mouth,
the captain showed no reaction.  The man beside him tilted his head to study
Lucan and it reminded Lucan of Danika when she was dissecting something.  It
pulled his attention that way and he studied the man who rumor had it was more
than human himself.  Then again, the room seemed bursting with all kinds of
miscreants and freaks, himself included, if anyone became aware of his family’s
dabbling in DNA manipulation.

It occurred to him that
if he wanted to get to the truth, he would be wise to bring in his truthsayer,
even if he wanted to keep her out of it for as long as possible.  Eventually
she was going to find out what was going on here.  She was a reader after all
and they were bonded now.

He motioned to Tuft.  “Have
Danika escorted over.”

With his words, a
tension seemed to drain from the room that had him looking around, and not all
of the reaction was from the captain.  The big burly guy who stood so
protectively over the mechanic was looking towards the door, a worried glint in
his eyes.  “Would you care to introduce me to your crew while we wait, Captain?”

“Oh, I don’t think
introductions are necessary.  You probably know more about my crew than I do.” 
Captain Relian stood up and moved around the table until he was between Lucan
and the rest of his crew.

Lucan raised a brow at
the move, understanding the message.  To get to his crew he would have to go
through the captain.  It made him respect the captain at least a little. 
Loyalty in any form was uncommon in this day and age, and he knew few men who
would put themselves in the way of a Warrung for anything.

Lucan raised a brow,
meeting the challenge in the eyes of the other man.  “Interesting.”

Before they could get
into it, the door behind them opened and Danika walked in.  He would have liked
it better if she had on full nanite armor rather than that revealing sarong. 
She looked entirely too delectable in bare feet and her hair down around her
hips.  She saw Lucan and Tyber first in what looked to be a face-off he was
sure.  He waited for her to greet her friends, but she very studiously took
them all in and then walked to his side.  She looked up into his face, a
question on hers.  At her own show of loyalty, he took her hand and pulled her
into his side.  He would have kissed her if it did not give too much away.  “Little
truthsayer, I have need of your services.”  He might not have kissed her, but
the caress he could not keep out of his voice was telling all on its own.  He
felt the captain relax marginally when Danika smiled back at him.

Only then did she turn
to the captain.  “Hello, Captain Relian.”

“Danika.”  He searched
her eyes and then relaxed even further.  “I trust you are well?”

Her smile softened just
a bit, and Lucan was tempted to hit the man in the face for being on the
receiving end of even that much of a smile.  Not logical perhaps, but true,
nonetheless.

“I am.” She tilted her
head to study him.  “You, however, do not look so good.”

Lucan moved his eyes
back to the man and took in the slightly scruffy look of him, and the lines
around his eyes.  He had assumed it was his normal look, but apparently not.

The captain smiled
without humor.  “It appears our grand plan did not work out as well as we had
hoped.  Though I am glad to see that at least you are safe and happy.”

The little bit of smile
left her face.  She looked briefly to Lucan who was watching every move
carefully.  She sighed.  “I did not mean to bring trouble to your door, Captain
Relian.  I hope we can resolve this matter quickly.”

“The captain and the
rest of the Jezebel crew were on their way here when they were found.  It is
not me they are running from.”

Danika’s eyes flashed
back at him, her hand going to his arm, and he could feel their connection open
between them.  She sucked in a breath and then truly smiled at him again.  She
turned back to the captain with that look still on her face, and Lucan watched
the impact it had on the man. 
That’s right,
he thought. 
She smiles
like that for me.

“Not that I am happy
you have other troubles, Captain, but I am glad Luc is not what is making you
so miserable.”

“No,” the captain said
dryly, shaking his head.  “Believe it or not, Lucan Warrung is the lesser of
two particular plagues,” he shrugged, “again.”

“My brother would be
hard to beat in depravity, even for another Warrung,” Lucan muttered, and felt
Danika burrow closer to his side, though when he looked, she had her eyes
trained on the mechanic and her mate. 

“Sera and Mac, you are
both well?”  There seemed to be a load of meaning behind the question and it
drew his notice to the two.

The girl shrugged, the
man just looked grim, a look he did well, but then space marines were known to
cut men down with a look alone.

Before she could
acknowledge the doctor and Lore who had come to stand beside his captain, Lucan
shifted in front of her.  “As fun as this get-to-know-you session is, I have
questions.  And I want answers that a truthsayer can validate.”  He turned to the
captain.  “Did you bring her here as some type of trap?”

The captain quirked his
brow and looked back at Danika.  He very carefully enunciated, “No.”

“Truth,” Danika’s voice
rang out, and he felt her relax marginally under his hand.

“Did anyone else lead
you to the salvage where Danika was found?”

Captain Relian
considered that before he answered.  “We intercepted a message about a derelict
craft with a strange energy signature, and went to investigate since we were
close.  That is the extent of the lead we were given.  I was under no one’s
orders or requests to do so.”

“Truth.”

“Have you had any
dealing with my brother or anyone else where I was discussed?”

“With your brother?  No,
but I do tend to have dealings where you are discussed.”  His voice went dry
again.  “Mostly those entail how to stay out of your territory, rarely I have
discussed with others business you have.”  He shrugged.  “You are not exactly
low key in this area of space.”

He looked to Danika. 
She shrugged, her face carefully neutral.  “Everything he said was the truth,
if a bit convoluted.”

“Did you know what you
were going to find in that salvage ship?”

“No.”

“Truth.”

“Did you bring Danika
here for any reason other than what you told her when you brought her?”

Captain Relian sighed. 
“Call me Tyber, I mean if we are going to be this close and all.”  He looked at
Danika.  “I brought her here for the reasons I stated, but I did have a further
motive for wanting her farther away.”  He smiled sadly at her then focused on
Luc.  “I was attracted to her.  Getting her far away seemed like the best idea.”

Danika swallowed, then
carefully looked away from both men.  “Truth.”

“Danika said she could
read all the crew but you, why?”

“Since I have no idea
how she does what she does, I can’t answer that.  My crew tells me I can be a
bit closed off from my feelings.  Maybe some people just develop a natural
wall.”

Lucan studied the man
for a few more minutes.  “Why were you coming back here?”  If the man said it
was for Danika, he would die where he stood.

He seemed to realize it
too because he smiled grimly and stepped back.  “I came here because your
brother is after the ship that took Danika off that salvage.  He is getting
close enough that I can feel his breath on my neck, and since I like living,
and am against torture, especially when it is my own, we came here, the one
place Cor Warrung will not come.”

Lucan was incredulous. 
“And why, may I ask, did you think I would allow you to stay?”

Tyber looked right into
his eyes, his own hard as diamonds. “You owe me.”

Lucan looked the man
over coldly and with clear doubt.  “For what?”

“We brought you Danika,
and if you tell me she is not worth a lot more than a little trouble with your
brother than we will all know you are lying.”

Lucan shook his head at
the man’s audacity, even if he was right.  “I could still send you on your
way.  She is mine, after all, you have nothing more I want.  Why should I let
you stay?”

Tyber smiled.  “Because
Danika would not like it if you sent us to our deaths.  She would feel responsible.”

Luc looked at the woman
in question and she gave a blank face.  “Truth.” 

He sighed, and then
turned to Tuft.  “Escort Danika back to her room.  Her truth saying abilities
are no longer needed at this time.”

He felt the vibes
coming his way before he turned to find her eyes narrowed on him.  “Are you
actually dismissing me to my room, before you deal with my friends?”  Her voice
was mild enough despite the razor her eyes were cutting across his flesh.

“We will talk later,” was
all he said, keeping his own eyes carefully neutral.

She narrowed hers
further, but showed no other reaction.  “Yes.  We will.”

He had faced enough
battles to see one was in the making, but at least she was willing to hold her
arguments to when they were alone.  He did not relish making her leave, or
fighting off the crew of the Jezebel when they came to her aid.  With a brief
nod to each of the others, she left the room.  She did not bother saying
goodbye to him.  It was a bad sign that.