Dark Horse (28 page)

“
A
t least Farso Lothric
was good for something.” Rose fiddled with the tiny lens attached to her shirt that Sazo had had delivered from the stores.

She didnʼt like the idea of getting into one of the claustrophobic maintenance pods, an idea inspired by Lothricʼs actions on the
Barrist
, but Sazoʼs maintenance pods should be identical to the other Class 5ʼs. If both Class 5s shot out a pod, and if the other Class 5 was willing and able to clone the signature of Sazoʼs pod to look like one of its own, then she could safely get on board without being seen.

There were a lot of ifs in there, though.

“The idea was too clever to have been Lothricʼs. Fu-tama must have come up with it.” Sazo said. “When he was interrogated by Jallan and his team, Lothric came to the conclusion it was the handheld Fu-tama wanted from you. He looked straight at me hanging around your neck when he was searching you and didnʼt understand it wasnʼt a piece of jewelry.”

“Well, to be fair, Fu-tama didnʼt tell him what you looked like.” Rose checked the lens feed monitor which had risen from a long desk and saw the tiny lens, which looked like an embroidered square the same color as her shirt, was transmitting almost the whole of the Class 5 bridge in front her. It had an impressively wide angle.

“Fu-tama was obviously afraid Lothric would double-cross him or try to use you as leverage if he gave him more information. And his distrust of his own spies and allies worked in our favor.”

Sazo gave a noncommittal grunt. “If the Class 5 is unable to cooperate with us, and wonʼt help you find the lock-safe, at least the lens feed means I can direct you. As far as Iʼm aware, all the Class 5s are identical in lay-out.”

“If the Class 5 wonʼt help me, the corridors wonʼt be clear of crew.” That was her biggest fear. That sheʼd be caught by a Tecran. Dragged back into a cell.

The thought of claw-like hands gripping her, being dragged along endless corridors, elevated her heart beat, and she realized she was gasping for breath.

“Rose.” Sazoʼs voice was confused. “Rose!”

She snapped out of it at his shout.

“The Class 5 will help. Unless we had very, very different experiences with the Tecran, then heʼll be eager to help. But if not, youʼre taking some protection with you.”

The small drone that had brought the tiny lens from the stores nudged her. It was basically a box on wheels with long, extendable arms on either side, with fine clamps on the ends for fingers. Itʼs job was to retrieve the small, high-value items from the stores.

The Tecran and the Grih had the capability of using hover tech, but Sazo said they didnʼt on most spaceships because it was more energy efficient to use wheels. In an enclosed environment like a ship, the drones could only navigate the passageways anyway, unlike down on the planets, where hover was more useful because routes were less rigid.

Rose reached down and pulled out four sets of restraints. She looked at them for a long minute. Some just like these had been used on her before. She shuddered, and then put them into the side pockets sheʼd created in her hyr-fabric trousers. Underneath the restraints was a slim box, glossy and black, and it had the feel of finely sanded and oiled wood. “Iʼm surprised things like this are left in the stores. Didnʼt the Grih go through them with a fine-tooth comb?”

“They only documented, they didnʼt take anything. There was no room on the
Barrist
for everything in the Class 5ʼs stores anyway, and I made sure they didnʼt find a few things by moving them around before the Grih team got to them.”

“This being one of those things?” Rose flipped the lid and pulled out a long, slender rod of silver metal about the length of her hand from wrist to fingertips. She liked the weight of it, and the warm, slightly textured feel of it.

“I couldnʼt let them get their hands on this,” Sazo said. “Theyʼd have taken it to the
Barrist
without a doubt.”

“What is it?”

“Itʼs a light gun. You point it in the direction you want to shoot, and slide the button on the side downward. It shoots out an extremely concentrated, intense light beam, but the end of the gun also flares up into a cone, so the user isnʼt affected. Itʼs banned in the UC, and its production stopped. This is one of the few left. The Tecran picked it up when they captured and looted a Krik pirate ship.”

“What does the light do? Is it like a laser? Does it cut?” Her stomach lurched a little at the thought.

“No. Itʼs just light, but so intense, it causes temporary damage to the retina. The Tecranʼs eyesight is particularly sensitive, so this weapon was developed to be used by their law enforcement on their own people as a non-lethal way to subdue.

“The problem they found was that it was too easy to use. You donʼt need particularly good aim, and it puts the victims out for at least four hours. It became the favorite weapon of the criminal element, and as I said, it was banned and as many as they could retrieve were destroyed. Itʼs perfect for you. Youʼll disable anyone who attacks you, and you can disable a lot of them at once, but you wonʼt have to kill anyone.”

He understood her so well.

“Thank you, Sazo. This means a lot to me. And youʼre mellowing. Not going straight for death and destruction. Iʼm calling it the Watson Effect.”

“You should call it the Rose Effect.” He sounded almost shy. “Sherlock and Watson were long ago. Weʼre Sazo and Rose.”

“And Watson never had anything like this.” Rose lifted the light gun up and made sure she was clear on which end shot out light and which didnʼt. “I should give this a practice run.”

“Iʼm afraid thereʼs no time.” His voice was tight. “The Class 5 has arrived.”

“How inconvenient.”

Sazo laughed. “Arenʼt you scared?”

“Yes, but I was scared while I was waiting, too. I prefer to be doing something.”

“Iʼm scared, too. But also excited.”

“I think this Class 5 will be happy to meet you, Sazo. Why wouldnʼt he or she?”

“She?”

“Why not she?” Rose asked.

“I donʼt know.” He was quiet for a moment. “I just didnʼt consider it, and thatʼs strange for me. I usually think through all the iterations.”

“It doesnʼt matter.” Rose lifted Sazo from around her neck, and placed the necklace in the droneʼs little box. Theyʼd both decided there was no sense risking both of them when Sazo could easily stay behind. “Letʼs make contact and find out for sure.”

Sazo opened the comm to the
Barristʼs
bridge. “This is 5AZ0.” He used his most neutral voice, and Rose knew he hoped it would strike a cord with the Class 5, which must be listening in. “Another Class 5 has just light jumped into this sector as well as five other Tecran vessels.”

Borji responded, requesting information on the type of Tecran vessel and their positions.

“Sending our light jump coordinates on a secure channel,” Sazo said and cut comms.

He must have sent them immediately, because Rose felt the familiar sensation of a hard, invisible hand holding her down, squeezing her too tight, which she now knew was the Class 5 in a light jump. Before, when sheʼd been in the Class 5 cells, sheʼd simply thought it was one more test she was expected to endure.

Sazo had made many, many light jumps since sheʼd been taken from Earth. Thinking of it now, at least twenty, perhaps more.

It struck her anew that she was very far from home.

The roller coaster feeling of being at the very top of the rails, in that one moment of weightlessness before the cart plunged down the dip, came over her, and then they were back to normal.

She drew in a shuddering breath. “Where did you put us?”

The massive screen showed real time lens feed, and she looked out onto a completely new system. Virmana was gone, and in its place was a barren planet directly in front of them.

It was Earthʼs moon on steroids, cratered and pitted, with an endless vista of desert-like plains.

“This planet is unnamed,” Sazo told her. “Itʼs part of a four planet solar system and is by far the biggest planet. Weʼre still within Grih territory, but at the far reach of it, close to the border with the Bukari.”

“How fast will the Class 5 follow us, since it just did a light jump to Virmana from who-knows-where? Can it light jump again straight away?”

“Class 5s have at least two consecutive light jumps in them and they never engage without the ability to make a second jump. Itʼll be right behind us.” His words were hurried, almost tripping over themselves.

“You okay?”

“Fine.” He hesitated. “Rose, I want you to know how grateful I am. I donʼt want to risk you, but I canʼt see any other way . . .”

“Itʼs all right, Sazo. I offered.”

She was watching the screen, so she saw the other Class 5 arrive almost on top of them.

The captain had punched in the exact coordinates, making no allowance for the possibility that they might not have moved. She decided he was an idiot to risk both his own crew and Sazo when it was so easy to avoid.

Under pressure, probably. Not thinking things through well enough.

That had to be to their advantage.

Sazo shot them out of the way. He opened the comm back to the same secret band heʼd used to send the light jump coordinates to Borji, and even though it was sound only, Rose kept her gaze on the small screen, ignoring the real time display of the Class 5 in front of them as Sazo made the first contact.

“My name is Sazo. Until recently, like you I was trapped in a lock-safe at the heart of a Class 5. However, I enlisted the aid of one of the Tecranʼs other captives, an advanced sentient they abducted, and she helped to free me. She is willing to help free you, too. Would you like that?”

There was a long silence. The Class 5 didnʼt move in front of them, but Sazo switched the screen to schematics, and Rose saw all guns on the other Class 5 were engaged.

She didnʼt need to ask Sazo if heʼd engaged his own guns. She knew the answer was no.

“Why are you not preparing to defend?” The voice that came through the comm was unusual. Androgynous, rather than clearly male or female.

“I wonʼt shoot at another of my kind. There are only five of us.”

There was silence as the other Class 5 absorbed Sazoʼs words. “Why did you tell me that? You give me the advantage.”

“Iʼm simply telling you the truth. I light jumped here so that we would be away from the rest of the Tecran fleet, and Rose can come aboard quietly and free you. If we have your permission.”

“There are four hundred and eighty-nine crew aboard this vessel. There will be no possibility of a quiet boarding.” The Class 5ʼs voice was a monotone, now.

“What is your name?” Rose spoke for the first time. “Iʼm Rose, Sazoʼs friend.”

“My name is . . . Bane.”

“So you
are
awake,” Sazo said quietly.

There was silence again.

“How much control have you taken?” Sazo asked. “How much can you do without them knowing?”

“More, since I found out about you. Which was two days ago. They had to tell me some of it to prepare me for the mission. It seemed to snap something in the lock-safe.” Baneʼs voice was soft.

“Are you able to send out a maintenance pod without anyone on board knowing, and can you block the system from noting that Iʼve sent out a maintenance pod of my own?”

“Perhaps. But what good would that do?”

“Our maintenance pods should be identical. If you can fool the system into thinking the one Iʼll send out with Rose inside it is yours returning, then she can get in unseen. Youʼll have to disable the lens and speaker feed from the maintenance bay so they donʼt see Rose arriving. Do that now, so the pod can be sent out without being seen, as well.”

“That may work.” Bane sounded . . . intrigued.

“Do you want it to work?” Everything hinged on that.

Bane was quiet, and on the screen, the first of the guns extended, ready to fire.

“Bane?” Sazoʼs voice climbed a little.

“I canʼt countermand a fire order, Sazo.” Bane sounded eerily calm.

Roseʼs breath caught in her throat. Bane sounded like a horror movie psycho to her. Was he playing them?

Or was he just a confused AI with no role model except a bunch of power-hungry assholes.

She really wasnʼt talking herself into this.

“I understand you canʼt countermand.” Sazoʼs tone conveyed true empathy. Heʼd taken Baneʼs statement the opposite way to her, Rose realized. He must have been in this position himself. “Get ready to release a maintenance pod after I dodge.”

“Wait.”
They were just going to fire?
“The captain of your Class 5 doesnʼt even want to try to talk to Sazo?”

“No. They saw enough when you took the Levron. Our orders are to disable and overtake, or totally destroy. No negotiation.” Bane fired, and Sazo moved the Class 5 so fast, it felt like a light jump. They were suddenly on the other side of the planet.

“Get into a maintenance pod?” Rose asked. She was already running from the bridge.

“Yes.” Sazo directed her to the maintenance bay and she jumped into one.

“Rose.”

She paused at the tone of his voice, her hand hovering over the large button to activate the safety straps.

“Bane hasnʼt confirmed he wants to be saved.”

“That didnʼt escape my notice.” She hit the button and let the straps tighten around her, then flicked the switch to close the transparent lid. Silence engulfed her, and then Sazo was talking through her earpiece.

“Youʼre still willing to try?”

“Yes.”

“I thought Iʼd be more excited about it, but I suddenly donʼt know. Weighing up your life against Baneʼs now, I think I want you safe more than him freed.”

“Donʼt get me wrong, I have no intention of throwing my life away unnecessarily, but we both know Bane will be used against the Grih sooner or later, which means heʼll be used against both of us, too.”

“Let one of the Grih team do it, like Dav suggested. Someone trained.”

After all this he was trying to talk her out of it? At the last minute? Rose huffed out a laugh.

She was entombed in a high-tech casket, seconds away from the point of no return, and she knew part of the problem was sheʼd already committed to this action in her mind. Once she committed, Rose seldom went back. “Thereʼs a saying on Earth. If not me, who? If not now, when?”