Shades of Dark (28 page)

Marsh watched the exchange with interest. When it became apparent that Del was not going to kill me for my insolence, the stiffness in Marsh’s shoulders faded. A bit.

“When I accepted what Ren was,” he asked Sully, “why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

“Ren’s not a
Ragkiril
. He’s the lowest level empath, not even a full
Ragkir
. That’s different from being a mind-fucker.”

Marsh raked one hand over his face. “Sorry, Sullivan. The term just—”

“Flows so easily from the lips?” Del quipped.

I spun back to him, my last strand of patience fraying. “Off my bridge, Regarth. Now.”

“Del.” Sully straightened. “Your cabin has a nice tub. Go soak.”

Your head,
I put in silently. And I wasn’t referring to the fact that Stolorths required water immersion every forty-eight hours.

“That is actually what I need to do,” Del said, rising. He winked at me then strode easily for the corridor with no further comment, aloud or internal. But I had no illusion that meant I had him under control.

Marsh relaxed visibly with Del’s departure. He glanced at my laser pistol in his hand, hefted it, then handed it back to me. “I have my own, will probably stayed armed for now. If you don’t mind, Captain.”

“I understand.”

He scrubbed at his face with his hands then with a new resolve apparent in the set of his shoulders, walked between me and Sully, heading to his chair at the engineering console. He spun it around but hesitated before sitting. “Requesting permission to resume my duties, Sullivan.”

Emotions played over Sully’s face, the link between us thawing, warming. He had to clear his throat again before he spoke. “Permission granted, Marsh. And thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“I figured if you wanted me dead, you would have done it on Ferrin’s.”

“You get really nasty when you’re stinking drunk.”

Marsh sat. “I still managed to clock you pretty good.”

“It only shuts down your brain. It doesn’t seem to slow your reflexes.”

“So it was a fair fight? No—” Marsh circled one hand in the air “—tricks?”

I eased myself back into the pilot’s chair and watched two old friends find their bearing again. Marsh wasn’t the only one who relaxed when Del left the bridge.

“Actually, because of what I am, I’m probably somewhat stronger than a guy my size should be. Someone else wouldn’t have been able to level me. But you did.”

“Until you kicked my feet out from under me.”

Sully shrugged. “You were staggering at that point. I just helped nature along.”

Marsh nodded. He was quiet for a moment, then: “Nature played a bad trick on you, didn’t she?”

“Most of my life I’ve hated what I am. But right now,” Sully said, pursing his lips thoughtfully for a moment, “I’m damned glad. Burke and Tage are afraid of me, or they wouldn’t be doing what they have been with Chaz’s brother, or trying to kill us at Narfial.” He hesitated, saw Marsh’s questioning expression as I did. “That’s something else we kept from you, yes. Tage had an ImpSec deuce come after us on Narfial. I couldn’t tell you then because you didn’t know what I was, what Del was. Because how we stopped them, got away, involved what we are. They probably have no idea we’ve hooked up with Del, or what that means. When they do, if they’re smart, they’ll start running and not look back.”

“Captain Regarth. Dorsie said he’s really a prince?”

Sully nodded.

“That brings us to our next problem,” Marsh said. “Now you’re going to have to go through this all over again with Dorsie.”

Sully groaned softly. “She’s going to poison me.”

“Take Ren with you,” I said. He had a calming presence. I wished he’d been on the bridge. I wonder if he knew how his prince would leave his victims smiling.

Sully departed the bridge, one problem if not solved, then at least on the way toward a solution. He had another ahead of him with Dorsie, and more after that—not the least of which was Del.

When I turned back, Marsh was looking at me. “I’m not really sure what to think yet,” he admitted. “I don’t like this. At all. But I’ve known you as long as he has, when you were Fleet, chasing us down. You’re still the same. You don’t take crap from him, from anyone. If I’m here, it’s because you are.”

I remember having a similar conversation with Ren when I first found out what Sully was. My faith in Sully was because of Ren’s trust in him.

“I’d like to read that research you mentioned,” Marsh continued after a moment, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“And I need to study that CCNN news feed.” I pulled up Gregor’s data and others Sully had on file. I sent the three most comprehensive to Marsh’s console with notations where he could find more.

Marsh glanced at his screen then back at me. “He really doesn’t control you. But he could.”

“Marsh, you could pull your laser pistol out of the locker in your cabin and shoot me anytime I walked down the corridor to the galley. But you don’t. All relationships work on an element of trust. You trust me to fly this ship, keep you safe. I trust you to keep the sublights operational and not shoot me in the back.”

“Can he hear what we’re thinking all the time?”

“He’s linked to me, so he knows if I’m upset or in trouble. And yes, he can talk to me, mentally, without being in the same room. But to listen to every thought you, Dorsie, Verno, Ren, and I have, constantly?” I shook my head. “The noise would be deafening, the content inane. It would wear him out.” I wasn’t sure of the last part but it sounded reasonable. And Del had made a similar comment.

“But you can tell when he’s doing that, right?”

“If he’s reading a mind deeply, yes, his eyes go very dark. And,” and I hesitated, not knowing how much to say, but he had the articles. He’d read about it anyway. “And when he uses the energies of the
Kyi,
you can see a silver haze around him.”

“I saw a vid clip of a Stolorth during the war doing that. It wasn’t real clear, but I know what you mean.” He raised his chin slightly. “So how does he get to be human and be this
Ragkiril
too?”

“He doesn’t know. No one really knows. There’s a theory that in humans it’s a genetic mutation. Rare. Every four generations or more. But it’s theory.”

Marsh pursed his lips. “Some people say we don’t belong in this sector. This is Takan and Stolorth territory, not ours. Maybe that’s true and maybe the galaxy knows it. It’s pissed off, so it’s changing us into what’s supposed to live here. You know. Evolution affected by environment.”

I’d studied evolution and environment in the academy. But pissed-off galaxies were a new one for me.

“If the galaxy’s pissed off, then it should be changing Burke and Tage into netherats. Speaking of which,” and I tapped my finger on my screen, “I need to examine what Tage released to CCNN. And then I have to track down Sully again because Dock Five may not be the best idea at this time. We need to decide on a course change in the next twenty-five minutes.”

Marsh nodded. “You’re a good person, Chasidah.”

“So are you, Marsh. So are you.”

I read through the brief but damning CCNN article on the “dangerous and mentally unstable mutant human
Ragkiril,
Gabriel Sullivan,” three times, then moved on to the reports of the “accident” in Grover’s City. Jukors still at large. There was no report of a freighter colliding with Narfial Station so I assumed either damage had been minimal or a course correction had been entered when we were no longer able to be targeted.

No mention of two dead ImpSec agents either. But that didn’t surprise me.

Sully and Ren came onto the bridge when I was finished making notes on what I’d read. I felt him before I heard the bootsteps in the corridor. He was emotionally drained, but there was a definite sense of relief.

“Your aunt has quite an impressive vocabulary,” Sully said, ducking under the hatchway opening. “I didn’t know it was possible to do those kinds of things with my anatomy.”

“She’s knocked me on my ass a couple times,” Marsh said. “Of course, I was smaller then. She’s willing to stay?”

“She needs to protect Ren from my disgusting influence.”

Ren sat at communications, a small smile playing over his mouth.

Sully drifted to my chair and rested one arm across the back, his fingers lightly on my shoulder.
Chasidah.
He was hesitant.
Okay?

I didn’t know if he was asking if I was okay, he was okay, Marsh was okay, or all of the above.

Me,
he said.
With you.

I’ll try not to stab you with my dagger for at least another shipday.

I can live with that.

“We need to talk about Dock Five,” I said out loud, angling around in the chair to peer up at him.

“Tage thinks he’s just made sure I’ll be shot on sight anywhere we make dock. That’s probably true for a Fleet starport. I can’t let it be true for Dock Five, or the rim. I don’t care if people hate me, but they will respect my captain, my crew, my ship. And when it comes to that, my mission. I’m not going to run away and hide. That’s what Tage wants. I’m not going to give it to him.”

I didn’t want to. I didn’t like it. But I didn’t stop Sully when he set our course for Dock Five.

We were about five hours out of the jumpgate and things, if not wonderful on board the
Boru Karn,
were at least calmer. Marsh had come to me with a few more questions about what he’d read, but that wild, fearful look was gone from his eyes. Dorsie was angry, protective, and cooking up a storm.

“If that son of a bitch gives you any trouble, you let me know,” she’d said, wagging an old-fashioned metal whisk in my face. “I can’t believe he lied to me. I loved that man like family for years. It’s not him, I know that. It’s that monster that lives inside him.”

Oddly, the monster inside Del appeared to bother her less. “He’s Stolorth. He can’t help it. Ren explained it to me.”

Dorsie had almost rejected Ren for the very same monster she’d thought lived inside him. But going through that process and accepting him again seemed to have cured her of that fear. And only solidified her affection for Ren and all things Stolorth, evidently. Her anger at Sully, not unlike her nephew’s, had more to do with the fact that he’d lied.

So this time Sully’s crew hadn’t walked, though they were tiptoeing now and then. And carrying a big whisk.

I lost track of Sully after dinner. Verno, Ren, and Marsh were on duty. I’d moved schedules again because of Del. I wasn’t going to pair him with Marsh until I was sure he wasn’t going to enslave the man. Smiles or no smiles.

I checked the ready room, galley, storage areas, gym. Ship’s interior sensors showed Del’s cabin empty. I don’t know what made me think of the shuttle bay. Bad memories? But when the hatchway was locked, I knew.

Sully?
I’d been mentally calling him for over an hour. But I’d been guessing then, sending out my queries at random. Now I envisioned the bay, envisioned Sully, and put some impatience behind my voice.
Sully!

Nothing. I had one last option. I keyed in the emergency overrides, complete with retinal scan and that damned annoying female voice that Sully insisted came with the ship and wasn’t his doing.

The doors opened.

I stepped into the
Kyi.

Limitless power surrounded me, rushing through the pores of my skin. For a moment I was floating, nothing under my boots. Then just as suddenly, I was on solid ground. Or rather, I had my feet under me, I was balanced, I could move, but nothing around me resembled solid ground or the shuttle bay where I’d found Gregor and Aubry attacking Sully.

I was inside an enormous silver sphere, up and down defined only by my current location. I knew without knowing how that if I wanted to go to a point I’d define as “overhead,” it would become, when I got there, “underneath.” Static. A workable plane of existence.

There were areas of the sphere where stars clustered, bright as a handful of gems. There were others that reminded me of mountaintops wrapped in gauzy clouds. Others were nebulas. In between it all was the darkness in various shades of gray, black, and deep blue.

Part of my mind told me I should be afraid. Part of me was. The other sensed a deep familiarity. I’d been here before, though not quite like this. It had never hurt me. Still, what if—

Chasidah.

I turned toward the voice, recognizing it with relief. Sully walked toward me, a long black coat billowing out around his legs as he moved. He wore black pants but was shirtless, his bare skin glowing brightly except where the coat covered his arms and shoulders. No light escaped there.

A containment field. I didn’t know how I knew that. I just did.

Del wore a similar coat on Narfial.

Del. I didn’t see him. I didn’t want to try to
feel
for him. But I knew he was here, somewhere. This…whatever…around me was not Sully’s doing.

He was frowning.
How did you get here?

“The shuttle bay door?” I replied, my voice rising not so much because my answer was a question but because I felt my answer was obvious. Didn’t everybody get here through a door?