Fallen Star (44 page)

“You’d rather she’d lost control and attacked?” Sobehk bared his teeth at them. “Do you have any idea what she’s capable of?”

The guards and a surprising number of the robed dignitaries backed up. Apparently more than a few had seen the ship’s vid on the news broadcast. Apologies and compliments on her admirable control spilled from multiple throats.

Sobehk turned and hit the lift call button. “I’ll get her back to her owner.”

The guards and the rest of the crowd dispersed in a hurry.

The door opened. Fallon stood, releasing Sobehk’s robes and.

Sobehk pushed her into the lift. “Where’s Khan?”

Khan ...
Fallon dropped to her knees as though struck. “They took him!” She turned and knotted her fingers into his robes. “They
took
him!” Sudden white-hot rage seared through her. She lunged back onto her feet, tugging on the front of his robes. “I have to get him back!”

“Isabeau!” Sobehk grabbed her upper arms, his blue eyes hot with anger. “
Who
took him?”

Fallon’s lips curled back and hate boiled in her snarling voice. “
Ehnya’dhyt
Sehnby and the Moribund Company.”

“What?” Sobehk’s face went slack. “
Ehnya’dhyt
Sehnby? Then it must have been him with the code to make you an assassin.”

“Fuck that!” Fallon’s claws dug into his robes. “I have to get Khan
back!
”

Sobehk shook his head. “Wait, this doesn’t make any sense! Why did they take
him
and not you?”

“Because the arrogant idiot threw himself into the lift and then ordered me out of it!” She released Sobehk so she could slam her foot against the lift wall. It made a very satisfactory bang. “I’m going to kick --”
Bang!
“-- his fucking --”
Bang!
“-- ass!”
Bang!
“For doing something so
stupid!
” She kicked the wall twice, leaving a rather satisfying dent in the metal.

Sobehk paced. “I’ll get his men on it.”

“Good idea. You do that.” Fallon paced the other way, thinking hard and fast. “You nail those fuckers to the wall while I go get him.”

Sobehk jerked to a halt. “You
what?
”

Fallon stopped by the lift panel. “I couldn’t get him before, because the lifts wouldn’t open for me. I’m in one now. Now, I can go get him. I’ll notify you as soon as I have him.”

“Oh, Blood and Chaos, no, you won’t!” Sobehk’s brows dipped and a growl rumbled. “You’re not going anywhere without me!”

Fallon growled. “You are
not
getting hurt again trying to do something I can do better!”

The lift door opened behind Sobehk.

Sobehk snarled. “What the fuck can you do that I can’t?”

Fallon lashed out and kicked him in the hip.

Sobehk flew backwards out of the lift and landed on his back in a carpeted hallway. He gasped and sat up. “Isabeau!”

Fallon stuck her head out of the lift door. “If he’s anywhere on this station, I can find him. You can’t.” She pulled her head back in, and the door closed.

His fist thumped against the outside of the door.
Isabeau! Are you out of your mind?
Panic colored his thoughts.

Fallon moved to the lift panel.
Sobehk, I’ve been stealing people from the Moribund Company most of my life.
She pulled one of Khan’s thin stiletto daggers from the seam of her boot.
I’ll get him, but I need you to be ready to come get us once I get him out.

Isabeau, this is insane!
There was less panic in his mental voice, and more anger.

No, it’s not. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.
She jammed the dagger into the panel’s seam and peeled a corner of it back.
Go get his men, and be ready to move fast. This won’t take long.

How much time do you need?
His panic was definitely fading, and determination was replacing his temper burst with something much colder and far more vicious.

That depends on how far away he is. As soon as I have him, I’ll contact you.
She poked through the wires and microprocessors. The damned thing was in here somewhere; there was always one in a lift panel.
I have to concentrate. I’ll contact you as soon as I know something.

I’m going to beat you black and blue for this.
He sighed. She could feel it.

Fallon smiled.
Absolutely.

Annoyance mixed with a sharp burst of fear.
Don’t you dare get killed!

I am very good at not getting killed.
There it was, down at the bottom in a smooth white coil.

Good
. Pain slid across the link, sharp and hot, straight from the heart.
I love you.

Fallon’s smiled faded as her heart threatened to break.
I love you, too.
She had to take a deep breath to think around the knot of emotion he was generating.
But I can’t think with you yapping in my head!

His amusement washed through her, followed by terrific burst of cold hard fury.
I’ll be waiting.
And then he was gone.

Her head came up. No ... not gone completely. She could touch him, but his thoughts were elsewhere. She nodded. It was time to make her call and get some work done.

Fallon pulled up the white communications coil and flipped the stiletto in her other palm. She unrolled a strand against the base of her wrist and stabbed the dagger through the fiber optic wire, direct linking to her biomechanics. She winced in pain then closed her eyes and accessed her personal communication’s array.

“This is the Station master ... Hey, what channel are you on?” The voice was feminine and youthful.

Fallon licked her lips. “Is this Alice?”

“Yeah. Where did you get that name?”

Fallon released the burst of data Peter had given her a very long time ago.

“Peter has been fucking dead for the past century! Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Fallon released the second burst of data, the keys to her spectral code that would unlock the second message hidden in the first.

An electronic screech came over the line. “You bitch! You fucking virused me ...!”

“No, I didn’t!” Fallon’s fingers closed tight on the white wire crossing her palm. “I gave you the keys to the other code; the one inside the first!”

Silence.

The lift came to a sudden and jarring halt between floors.

Fallon grabbed onto the wall to keep from falling. The hair on the back of her neck lifted. She looked up at the four steel walls sealing her in. “Oh ... shit.” If this lift fell, there was absolutely no chance of survival. The station master would make sure of it.

More silence.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

“Who the fuck are you?” The station master’s feminine voice vibrated with anger, but she wasn’t screaming.

Fallon’s breath came out in a rush. She wasn’t dead yet. “Alice, this is the Fallen Star from Neverland. And I have a major pirate problem.”

“What’s Peter’s password?”

“First star on the right, and straight on ’til morning.” Fallon had to close her eyes. Maker ... she missed him.

“Oh, God ... Did he ... Did Peter give you ... mine?”

“You’re Alice. Your log-in is Wonderland. Password is ...” Fallon had to take a deep breath. “Twinkle, twinkle, little bat; how I wonder what you’re at.”

“Oh, God ...” Her voice shivered with nervous laughter. “He’s alive. Peter’s
alive
.”

Fallon nodded, knowing that Alice could see it if she accessed the lift vid display. “I’m sorry to surprise you like this, but it’s really important.”

“What happened? I thought Peter, Neverland, was ... destroyed?”

Fallon shivered with impatience, but she needed Station master Alice’s help if she was going to locate Khan. “Peter says he doesn’t remember exactly what happened to shut him down. He was awakened about forty cycles ago already hacked into and taken over by the Moribund Company.”

“Moribund Company, huh? The salient ships are bitching up a storm because that pack’s been hacking and stealing ships.”

Fallon frowned at the blank wall. “Salient ships? You mean the sentient ships?”

Alice snorted. “No. Most jump-capable ships are sentient to some degree. A salient ship is independently self-aware.” A burst of static betrayed her irritation. “I don’t believe the Moribund Company would hack stations, too! Oh, those ... those ... assholes!” Another burst of static. “So why hasn’t Peter contacted me?”

Fallon bit her lip. “He can’t. The pirates have him blocked from directly contacting other stations or the sentient ships, and for a long time he had no idea who he was. Peter has been using the spectral code I gave you as an invisible firewall to hide behind for the past fifteen cycles while he pieced his memory back together. He found you and the others in a deeply hidden cache file. He doesn’t know if the Moribund Company knows about the file, because he doesn’t know what they hacked into when he was still offline.” She swallowed. “Alice, you could be in danger.”

Alice sighed. “Moribund Company has become something of a pest problem. God, I have to talk to Peter.”

Fallon shook her head. “Dyson’s Ring is monitored incoming and outgoing.”

“Wait a minute, Peter is Dyson’s Ring? I put data through there all the time. I thought it was a dead station, no sentience. ”

“It’s Peter, but they’ll never let you reach him. He’s been trying for ages.” Fallon nibbled on her bottom lip. “If you can find a way to incorporate the spectral code I gave you into your communications, you can contact Peter that way. It’s completely invisible and undetectable to anyone who doesn’t have the code keys.”

“Who does have the codes keys?”

“Peter, me, probably one or two of Peter’s lostlings ...” Fallon looked up. “And one other person. He’s on this station.”

“On this station? Who?”

Fallon felt the anger and the hope rise around her heart, “His name is Khan, and the Moribund Company has him somewhere on this station. Alice, I need your help to find him!”

“Those sons of bitches ... Shit, there are over eighty thousand bodies on this station. Do you have a way to identify him?”

Fallon grinned. “I have two, but they may have one of them blocked.”

“Gimme what you got.”

“One is the spectral coding. When it’s active, it resonates with anyone else in possession of it. The other is my ...” She winced. “My control collar.”

“Your
control collar?
You’re one of those ... Skeldhi sex-slaves?”

Fallon hunched her shoulders then sighed. “Yes. I am. Khan is my ... master, and I have to find him.”

“Fallen Star, I have access to their coding. They don’t know it, but I do. I can get that thing off you. You could let him go and you could be free. This is a big station; you could get lost in it really easy. I’ll even help set up a new identity for you.”

Fallon froze, shocked to the core. She could be free. She could be herself again. And alone again. She closed her eyes. She was tired of being alone.

“You could stay with me, if you like. I could use the company, and you could help me get the word out to the rest of the stations about Moribund Company.”

Fallon felt her heart slam in her chest. She could see Peter again.

But she would never see Khan or Sobehk again. Pain stabbed sharply through her heart. “Alice, I’d like to. It sounds wonderful. But I ... can’t.”

“Yes, you can!”

“No, really, I can’t. I ...” Fallon closed her eyes. Maker, she was out of her mind! “Alice, I love him, and he loves me. I have to get him back.”

“You ... love him?” She sighed. “I understand. All right, we’ll get you back your Khan. Where do we begin?”

Fallon looked up. “We begin by activating your code keys ...”

* * * * *

Alice released a burst of data. “Can you see him? Is he there?” Her voice sounded like any other excited kid with a brand new toy.

Fallon frowned. “I think so.” A very odd looking figure sat on its haunches in the corner of the lift. It was round, had four legs that ended in tiny paw-like feet, a thick fluffy tail, small triangular ears at the very top of its very round head, and humongous slitted eyes of neon green, but it also had a smiling mouth that spread the full width of its head, and it was striped -- as though painted. It was obviously a fantasy figure rather than any kind of actual figure. “Is it a ... feline?

“Yes!” She giggled. “Yes, he is!”

Fallon tilted her head from one side to the other. “Is he supposed to be that violet-purple color?”

“Yes! Yes, he is!” Alice laughed. “He’s the Cheshire cat!”

Fallon’s brows shot up. “Oh ... okay.” That was a cat? Alice apparently had quite an imagination, by way of felines.

“And you can see him?”

Fallon nodded. “Loud and clear. He’s much too ... bright to miss.”

Alice giggled. “Good! Because I just sent him all over the station and no one can see him but you! Your spectral coding kicks ass!”

The Cheshire cat abruptly started bouncing up and down in circles, floating like a somewhat weighty balloon.

“I have a spy no one can see! Yes!” Alice released a very human whoop of joy.

The cat’s head abruptly turned to face Fallon, disconcertingly separating from the bouncing cat’s shoulders, and then the head started bouncing independently of the still turning and bouncing body.

Fallon’s brows shot up.
Whoa ... scary imagination.

The lift started moving.

“Now that I’ve incorporated your coding, I think I know where your Khan is being kept.”

Fallon’s heart lurched. “You do? You found him?”

“Pretty sure. There are only two of you with that code, right?”

“Right.”

“Then I found him. There’s only one other spot that feels like you. I can get you through all the security doors, but it’s still going to involve some climbing, and crawling in places.” She cleared her electronic throat. “I hope you don’t mind the occasional ... pipe?”