Deep Indigo (16 page)

“You’d better believe it,” Panthar answered. “Even I can’t get us past Cirrius and her moons. All their gravitational pulls are programmed into that system.”

“Gas him,” Slyde said. “He’ll drop in a moment and we can go in with masks.”

“Hell,” Craig swore. “Look—he’s putting one on right now. Somehow he knew about the gas. How does he know all this?”

“You can’t come in here!” a Serpentian guard barked at the open hatch.

“But I must speak to Commander Navos!” It was Nelah, pale and distraught.

“Stay back.” The guard gave her a push.

“Commander Navos!” she called. “Daron! You must listen to me! It’s Chad. He—”

“We know about him,” Navos snapped. He waved impatiently at the guard. “Release her.”

He turned back to the others. “I’ll take care of him. It’s the only way.”

Craig nodded. “All right. Let’s go.”

Navos strode out of the command deck, the others following. Serpentian guards stood at the ready outside the auto-nav. Inside, limned against the gleaming lights and blinking signals, Chad stood over the console, already reaching out to one of the controls.

“No!” snarled Panthar. “Not the override! Get him before he sends us all hurtling to perdition.”

“Quiet!” Navos’s cold voice sliced like a knife through those around him. “I cannot work if anyone speaks.”

He braced his hands on the edge of the hatch and closed his eyes. He sent a current of psychic power surging into the auto-nav. He was sent reeling back by a wave of malevolent power. It was not the boy’s.

Snapping back to his own mind, he stared into the auto-nav, where Chad was touching first one, then another control, as if trying to decide which to use. He was nodding, then shaking his head as if someone were giving him orders.

Someone powerful. Someone very angry. Someone who had to be on the ship.

There was only one being on the ship besides himself capable of this. An icy sickness rose up in him. Mazarin had done the implant. Mazarin and Cyan were involved. Cyan had sent Nelah to the
Orion
. She was talented enough, and the temptation of wielding great power had been the ruin of more than one Indigon.

He whirled. Yes, she was there, at the fringes of the small crowd. Watching the boy intently.

“You,”
he accused. Her lovely eyes widened as they met his. “Cyan talked you into this, didn’t he? Or coerced you,” he guessed as she shook her head, hurt and horror written on her face. “But never mind that. How are you doing it? Damn you, how?”

Blindsided by the shock of having the man she loved, admired, turn on her, Nelah could feel her mouth working, but nothing would come out of her throat. Like a small flutter-moth she was pinioned by his icy gaze.

She noticed with ridiculous detail how the two guard captains moved to place themselves on either side of her. Perhaps they thought she was capable of doing bodily harm. Or was it so she could not escape? As if there were anywhere she could go. She swallowed a hysterical giggle.

With a greater effort of will than she’d ever summoned, she forced herself to speak. She supposed she should thank Navos for that—she’d learned more about self-control from him than anyone she’d ever met—as well as more about losing it.

“He has—an implant,” she managed. “It is made of biotic materials.”

“
What?
How did you discover this?”

“I—I was angry.” Unable to bear the contempt in his gaze, she spoke to the emblem on his chest. “I intuited him. At once, I sensed there was another presence. I don’t think he was aware of it. But it was awake, somehow. It sensed me.” She shuddered at the memory.

She dragged her gaze up to his. “If you wish, I will remove myself to a sealed portion of the ship. Or—or you may have me incapacitated. But I would like to stay and help.”

“Think you could hurry it up back there?” Panthar snarled. “He’s got his paws on my manual drive.”

Without warning, Navos sent his power slamming into her mind. Nelah reeled back against the wall behind her. Every instinct screamed to defend herself from this sudden invasion. But she left herself defenseless, letting him blast through every corner of her mind. It burned, but the pain was more than psychic, it was her heart shattering.

This was no beguiling lover, but a cold, impersonal Navos, intent only on discovering whether she spoke the truth. Whether she was a calculating manipulator, or merely a foolish blunderer who had awakened a sleeping viper.

He was ruthless and thorough. And then he was finished, leaving her trembling.

“I perceive I was mistaken,” he said curtly, even as he turned back to the window into the auto-nav. “In which cortex did you find the device?”

She forced back the moan of pain that tried to push out of her throat. Shoving herself away from the wall with an effort, she started to follow him, only to find two golden-clad arms holding her firmly.

“The cerebral.” She winced as she was shoved back against the wall again.

Navos whirled. “Release her. She’s not part of it.”

“You are certain?” the huge guard captain asked.

“Yes. I was mistaken. Now all of you step back and stay quiet. Nelah, come. We haven’t much time.”

Panthar snarled wordlessly as, inside the auto-nav, Chad seized a large control and began to pull it toward him.

“Follow me,” Navos ordered. “It will take both of us to do this. I don’t know how the device works.”

“Who could be doing this?” she asked as she moved to stand beside him at the window.

“Cyan.” He spat the name contemptuously and Nelah jerked with shock. “But we’re going to stop him. Just follow me and say nothing.”

She took a deep breath and opened her mind to him. He was there instantly, already flowing forward, into the auto- nav, carrying her with him. It was like riding the crest of a great rushing wave. She could only struggle to keep her balance. She’d never used her intuitive power so swiftly, or with such force. If she hadn’t just experienced it, she wouldn’t have believed it possible.

And then they were face-to-face with malignance. It was indeed her step-father. To what depths had Cyan sunk, to be involved in this?

“So, you’re back,”
he gloated.
“Thought you’d never have the guts to return and face me. The great Daron Navos, bested by a first-year intern with a little implant. Tsk, tsk.”

Nelah hovered in the background. Cyan seemed not to have noticed her. Well, she thought a little hysterically, it was a bit crowded—four Indigons in one psyche.

“Why are you doing this, Cyan?”

Nelah could feel Navos searching for a way to gain control. Cyan’s power seemed limitless, completely overpowering the boy’s.

“Why?”
Cyan answered.
“Why? Because I can, you idealistic fool. Now that I have Mazarin’s money backing me, I’m unstoppable. And you and your great hulk of a space cruise ship are going to be my debut. The boy is mine—he’ll die if I ask him. And I will. Once I’ve destroyed the great Commander Navos, every crime lord in the galaxy will be vying to hire me! Ha, ha, ha!”

Nelah listened with horror. She’d learned Cyan hid malevolence behind his smiling charm, but she’d had no idea he was capable of such evil.

“How did you get so much information about the Orion?”
Navos demanded.

“Ah, I wondered if you’d notice,”
Cyan purred.
“Chad’s been a busy boy, gathering intel from various crew members for me.”

Nelah jolted mentally, nearly falling off the wave of power. And then she realized with a little shock that Navos was nudging her. He wanted her to do something—but what?

“You’ve left only one factor out of your equation, Loftan,”
Navos said.
“I’m stronger than you. Always have been, always will be.”

“Really,”
Cyan purred.
“Let’s see how fast you are then, Commander.”
He sent out a great surge of power.

Chad pulled with all his might on the control stick and Nelah reeled as the ship tilted alarmingly. Panthar roared with rage and Craig shouted something. Their voices were merely wordless rumbles to her.

Navos’s arm closed around her, holding her close to his side. In her mind, she felt him turn and face Cyan. At the same time, while holding her physically, he threw her off the wave of his psychic power.

For an instant she was free-falling, lost and bewildered. And then she understood. He would face Cyan alone. Her task was to handle Chad.

It was like being in a pit with two raging leviathans. Terrifying and fascinating. But meanwhile the ship shuddered again, jerking her attention back to the boy at the controls.

Swiftly Nelah turned. Ignoring the battle surging back and forth around her, she swooped toward the device pulsing with obscene power around Chad’s cerebral cortex. How could she hope to stop it? Perhaps by surrounding it.

With a swift prayer, she sent tendrils of power out and began to wrap them around the thing, until she surrounded it entirely. It fought back, sending painful charges zinging through her mind, but she hung on. Finally, it collapsed.

So did Chad. He swayed and fell backward like a felled tree onto the floor of the auto-nav. The passageway ceased to shake and the great ship sailed smoothly.

With a last snarl of rage, Cyan retreated. But strangely, the last thing they sensed was his vicious laughter, fading away. Navos and Nelah were alone.

Suddenly exhausted, she fell against him, her head on his chest. He held her tightly, but she could feel his arm trembling as well. Beneath her ear, his heart thundered.

Navos could not believe it was over. It had seemed…too easy, somehow. Why had Cyan laughed at the end? Madness?

He shook off his strange unease. He was simply reacting to the horrific experience they’d just been through. The rumors were true. Biotic implants had been perfected. And they were in the hands of two of the most ruthless, unscrupulous Indigons possible.

The slender girl in his arms was shaking. He tightened his hold on her, overwhelmed with a sudden rush of gratitude that she was safe and alive. And she hadn’t been involved, after all. She was innocent. His lovely, bright flower was innocent.

“You did it,” Craig cried. He slapped Navos on the back, buffeting him. Meeting his eyes, Navos nodded.

“It’s over,” said Sirena, sounding surprised.

“Not until I check the controls,” Panthar replied, as the hatch to the auto-nav hissed smoothly open. “Get him out of here, would you?”

“Be gentle with him,” Navos said over Nelah’s head. Weariness washed over him in a wave. “He’s an innocent dupe.”

“What made him do this?” Craig demanded. “Was it a bio-implant, as Ms. Cobalt thought?”

Navos nodded. “Yes. No doubt placed there by Mazarin. Although the boy was being controlled by Loftan Cyan, professor at the university.”

“We will take the boy to Tentaclar,” Slyde assured him. “I’m guessing he’ll be doing some emergency surgery.”

Sirena nodded, her emerald gaze fiery. “We’ll alert the IBI to pick up this professor and Mazarin.”

“I will be with you shortly,” Navos said. “I’m taking Ms. Cobalt to the infirmary.”

Nelah lifted her head from his chest and pushed at him. “No, I’m fine,” she said.

He looked down at her. She looked pale and fragile. His heart squeezed as if a great fist had reached into his chest.

“No, you aren’t,” he said. “You need rest. I’ll take you to your room.” His arm about her, he swept her into the nearby elevator.

Once inside, she stood quietly. He looked down at the top of her head.

“Nelah,” he said carefully. “You do understand the safety of the
Orion
must come first. On board, I’m not just a man—I’m a commander—and my first duty must lie with the ship.”

“Yes, of course.”

He stroked the small of her back with his thumb. “Good. That’s good. I…I also owe you my deepest apologies. Nelah, forgive me for doubting you, even for an instant. It seemed impossible someone not on board could be controlling the boy.”

The elevator stopped and the hatch hissed open. They stepped out and she turned to him.

The bottom fell out of his gut. Her lovely eyes held an infinite sadness.

“Yes, of course,” she repeated. “I understand completely, Commander. Your first duty will always be to your ship.”

And she turned and walked away.

He started to go after her, to follow her into her room and take her in his arms and kiss her and talk to her, persuade her of his sincerity until she was warm and responsive and alive again—screaming and raging at him if she must, anything but this pale, withdrawn holo-image.

But his com-link beeped and Craig’s voice cut through the quiet passageway.

“Daron? We need you up here.”

Nelah paused in her open doorway, looking back at him. Frustration burned as he fought the urge to go to her. Arms at his sides, Navos bowed deeply, honoring her with his profound respect in the Indigon way.

Her soft mouth trembled and a sheen of tears filled her eyes, but she turned away, disappearing into her room.

He stood there alone. For the first time in his years aboard the great ship, it felt wrong. And he knew, as surely as if he were in the room with her, she was weeping. He reeled, her pain washing over him.

But he set his jaw and answered as he must.

“I’m on my way, Captain.”

Chapter Eighteen

Loftan Cyan received the request for a holo-vid conference just as he was about to leave his office at the Indigon University. All the others in his department had already gone home. Outside, dusk cast blue-violet shadows across the white stone of the campus, muting the splash of the fountains and the sleepy calls of birds settling to roost. Seeing the message was from a certain party on Pangaea, he opened the link with relish.

To his surprise, the slender, pale green figure facing him was a woman. Rra’s little mistress. She was a pretty thing, if you liked the weedy sort. He smiled to himself at his own joke, for everyone knew Pangaeans’ greenish glow was the result of living on the chlorophyll-rich plants of their home planet.

“What do you want?” He eyed her carefully. She was different, somehow, than she’d been in the earlier holo-vid. Tense as a drawn bow, with a hard, bitter light in her green eyes.