Dominion (26 page)

He laughed again.

“No,
thank you
. For what you said. For all of it. For being with me.”

“I am still with you,” she said.

“Yes.”

But not as before. It hurt now, but it would be all right. They would make it so.

S
teven listened to Alis's plan. There was something familiar about it. He just couldn't remember what it was.

“You have to admit that it's better than yours,” said Rizzo.

And then it came to him.

“That's because it's from
Star Wars
!” he said.

“I have no idea what that is,” said Alis.

“My God,” said Steven, “we're in
Star Wars
.”

“I still have no idea what that is,” said Alis.

“I don't know what he's talking about either,” said Rizzo.

“Oh, come on,” said Steven. “You must have seen
Star Wars
. Everyone's seen
Star Wars
.”

“Alis hasn't. And of course I've heard of it, but I haven't watched it.”

“Alis isn't from Earth. She has an excuse. You don't.”

“I never liked science fiction,” said Rizzo. “It's kind of male, and not in a good way.”

Steven gaped at her.

“You're flying a spaceship stolen from an alien race. You're actually
in
science fiction.”

“I still don't like it.”

Good grief, thought Steven. Alis tapped him on the shoulder.

“Please—what is
Star Wars
?”

And he tried to explain as the next of the wormholes loomed.

T
he boosts went as well as boosts can go, and then they had their first sighting of Krasis, the prison world.

“Pure luxury,” said Rizzo, and she sniggered, for the moon ahead of them was a sad, gray thing, the most remote of seven satellites orbiting a gas giant named Tener. However, by the standards of its sister moons, and Tener itself, Krasis probably counted as a paradise.

The Krasis scanners picked up their presence as soon as they emerged from the wormhole.

“Krasis calling the
Gradus
. Respond please.”

Alis opened the channels, both audio and visual. The head of a Securitat functionary appeared before her.

“Identify yourself.”

“First Officer Yallee responding,” she replied. She'd run a check on the
Gradus
's crew manifest, and decided that Yallee was the one whom she most closely resembled.

“I am Lieutenant Reutan, duty officer at the Krasis Incarceration Complex. Your boost was not scheduled, and this is a secure facility.”

“I understand, Lieutenant, but this is an emergency. We were engaged in a firefight with an unknown vessel. They attempted to board us; in the ensuing battle a dock breach occurred. Both attackers and defenders suffered serious casualties. I lost all of my crew, including the commander, but I succeeded in capturing two of the humans who attempted to seize our ship.”

“Humans?” Reutan was interested now.

“I have identified them as Michaela Rizzo and Steven Kerr. I ran them through the standard records, and it appears termination notices have been served on both of them. I considered carrying out the order myself, but Krasis was in reach, and I thought it might be more useful to hand them over to the Security Directorate. Although,” she added, “should you decide to execute them, I would like to be involved. Their actions caused the deaths of my comrades.”

“Stay where you are, First Officer.”

Reutan's image vanished for a time. When it reappeared, it was clear that the naming of Rizzo and Steven had set bells ringing in the Securitats' own system. Alis wasn't concerned about a message being transmitted back to Illyr, not yet. The Securitats would wait until they had confirmed the identity of the prisoners, and it appears then a drone would have to be sent through the wormhole. If all went well, the facility would be in friendlier hands long before that came to pass.

“Can you show me the prisoners?” Reutan asked.

Alis flicked a switch, and an image of Steven and Rizzo sitting dejectedly in the ship's small brig was added to a corner of the screen. Alis knew that their facial features would automatically be scanned and compared with those on record. She was just grateful that, in their excitement, Reutan and his fellow Securitats hadn't bothered to do the same with her.

“Identities confirmed,” said Reutan. “We've activated a pad for you, Yallee. You're clear to land.”

The
Revenge
breached Krasis's atmosphere, and the prison facility was revealed to her. Only three of its seven blocks appeared to be operational, for four were entirely dark. The lights of a landing pad blinked before her. A cruiser and a transporter, the latter much older and larger than the
Revenge
, waited on nearby pads, one of which had clearly been constructed recently, and was little more than an area cleared of rocks. Beside it stood a couple of shuttles, but as Alis brought the
Revenge
around she saw a newer ship sitting on a raised platform beside the central core. There appeared to be some activity around it, and she noticed storage chests being loaded into it.
Interesting
, she thought.

The pad activated for the
Revenge
was one of those closest to the core. As she brought the ship in to land, a phalanx of armed Securitats, their faces obscured by breathing masks, appeared from a doorway but kept their distance until the
Revenge
had touched down and the dust had cleared. Alis killed the engines and took a moment to think. She had done all that she could. The blueprints for Krasis were downloaded to her mainframe, and now she needed to gain access to the prison systems. Her finger hovered under the unlock button. Once Rizzo and Steven were in the hands of the Securitats, she would not be able to protect them. As wanted criminals, they could expect some rough treatment, but it was in the nature of Securitats to seek information from valuable prisoners before killing them. Rizzo and, more particularly, Steven, were both prizes in themselves and potential sources of information about the whereabouts of Syl Hellais. Back at the Derith wormhole, Fenuless had revealed that Syrene and the Nairene Sisterhood were anxious to have their lost Novice returned to them alive, if at all possible. So Steven and Rizzo were in no immediate danger of death, but at very real risk of painful interrogation, and a beating along the way. Alis would have to work fast.

She said a prayer to her god, to any god, and unlocked the doors.

•  •  •

Alis was right: the Securitats chose not to be gentle with their prisoners. Four of them entered the brig and dragged Steven and Rizzo from it. Immediately the rest of the Securitats surrounded them where they lay on the floor. Batons rose and fell, and Alis saw booted feet kicking at the prisoners. It was all that she could do not to show concern. When she called on the Securitats to stop, it was with an air of boredom more than anything else.

One of the Securitats lifted his breathing mask, and she recognized Reutan.

“You have no authority here, Yallee,” he said, and in his words she heard an uncomfortable echo of her own earlier comments to Steven. She tried not to stare at Steven now. She could see him through Reutan's legs. His scalp was bleeding profusely, and his hands were raised above his head in an effort to ward off any further kicks. Rizzo's eyes were closed. Alis suppressed her regret instinct. Her plan had been the most logical, and the one with the highest chance of success. Both Steven and Rizzo had accepted the personal risks involved.

“That may be true, but piloting the
Gradus
alone gave me no time to interrogate them. It was only with the greatest reluctance that they gave me their names, and they would share little more. But the termination order links them to the fugitive Nairene, Syl Hellais. If you injure them excessively, and thus prevent them from providing information about her whereabouts, we may all have to answer to the Archmage.”

Even the Securitats didn't care to cross the Sisterhood. Reluctantly, Reutan ordered the prisoners to be taken to one of the core's primary holding cells. Steven managed to stay on his feet with the support of his captors, but Rizzo had to be carried.

“You kicked her too hard, Lerras,” said one guard to another as they grabbed an arm each. “I told you not to aim for her head.”

The one named Lerras shrugged.

“She deserved it,” he said, grinning. Quietly, Alis registered his name and appearance. When the time came, she would take care of him personally, she decided.

“I can offer you the hospitality of the guardhouse, Yallee,” said Reutan as the
Revenge
emptied of Securitats. “It's not much, but this is a prison, not a hotel.”

“I would be grateful if you could first take me to a secure communications hub,” said Alis.

Reutan looked puzzled. “For what reason?”

“I have confidential mission information to impart to my superiors. Can you prepare a drone?”

“We'll be sending one through the wormhole imminently to inform CentCom of the apprehension of these prisoners,” said Reutan. “But any information you have can be shared with us. We
are
on the same side.”

“I'm afraid this information is for the ears of Vice President Dyer only,” said Alis. “It would be unwise of me to disseminate it more widely.”

“In that case . . .” said Reutan, but Alis caught the look in his eye. For the Securitats, nothing was confidential. Reutan was happy to let her use their communications system to compose a message, if she was foolish enough to believe that they wouldn't be listening to every word.

It was then that she nearly made her first error. Reutan offered her a breathing mask and she opened her mouth to refuse—she was a Mech, and had no need of a respirator—until she remembered that she was supposed to be an Illyri officer.

“Thank you,” she said, pulling on the mask.

“I trust you're not armed,” said Reutan. “No outside weapons are permitted in the facility.”

Alis spread her arms wide and turned around once to show that she was unarmed.

“I could always search you, just to be sure,” said Reutan. He thought that the young officer's uniform fitted her very well, even if it wasn't strictly regulation.

“You could always try,” said Alis, in a tone that suggested it might be the last thing Reutan ever did, at least with a full set of unbroken fingers.

Reutan decided not to search her. For now.

“After you,” he said, and he followed her across the moon's desolate surface to the looming central core.

K
rasis didn't have Chip or retina scanners or, if it did, they were not being used. It was a little bit of good luck, but Alis knew that on such small blessings did even the best of plans depend. On consideration, the absence of scanners made sense: Krasis was a prison facility for humans, and they did not carry Chips in their skulls. Also, as with Krasis's lack of significant outer defenses, there was no reason why any Illyri would want to mount an attack on the prison in order to help humans escape. With war raging, even the Military had better things to occupy its time than invade Krasis to free some Brigade troops. Few figures in the Military hierarchy had any real affection for human conscripts.

All of this had made the Securitats stationed on Krasis casual in the extreme, but the prison guards were hardly the cream of the Security Directorate to begin with. Prison duty was inflicted on those who had failed in some way, while the ones who volunteered for it tended to be both lazy and brutal. For the latter, Krasis must briefly have seemed like a jolly posting, since it gave them the freedom to inflict misery and suffering on the ranks of the Punishment Battalions without any real fear of reprimand.

The prison was old. Its precast component parts had been dropped on the moon more than half a century before, since the stone of Krasis was porous and hard to mine. Inside, it was all steel doors and steel bars. It smelled dry and musty, like an old tomb. The core was three stories high, and dominated by a tower at its heart, which held all of the monitoring and security systems for the prison, and was staffed at all hours. Screens around the tower displayed real-time images from the prison blocks.

Prisoners entered through a mesh tunnel that fed into a processing room, where they were shaved, stripped, put through showers, assigned to one of the blocks, and given a standard uniform of a yellow jumpsuit, work gloves, boots, and a coat. Since they had been condemned to the Punishment Battalions, this was the clothing they would wear until they died.

But Steven and Rizzo were not going to be processed. Instead they were placed in adjoining holding cells within sight of the main tower. Reutan took Alis's respirator and placed it in a sterilization case with the rest. So the guards did not carry respirators as a matter of routine, she noted. That was good.

Reutan offered Alis the opportunity to shower and rest, but she declined his offer. She didn't care for the way Reutan was looking at her. He was just a step short of licking his lips and then trying to lick hers. She had no intention of stripping naked so that he and his friends could perve over her via a remote camera.

That was the other thing she had immediately noticed upon entering the core: the Securitats here were all male, just like the prisoners. Women and girls were rarely banished to the Battalions, and so their numbers in the punishment ranks were few, although Alis suspected that any women sentenced to punishment duty, however strong they might have been, would not have lasted long. But there had been numerous female conscripts in the Brigades, which meant that the survivors among them must have been sent to another facility.