Enemy Games (34 page)

“The only manifestation we’ve noticed is the ability to understand the Chekydran-ki,” Jayleia said. “Do we assume my scan is similar?”

“Hop on my table and let’s find out,” Raj said.

She complied.

Dr. Idylle pulled up a scan from her physical not five months ago and readied it for comparison while Raj ran a new image.

“All done,” her cousin said.

“The concentration of organisms in your brain is lower than in Major Sindrivik’s,” Dr. Idylle said.

Jayleia blinked and rose. Was that why Damen heard and understood more than she did?

“I entered a healing trance shortly after being infected,” she said. “I wonder if that had any bearing.”

Raj shrugged. “You also have proven immunity to Chekydran plagues.”

“The one thing the crew of the
Sen Ekir
has in common,” Damen said, nodding. “You’re all immune to the Chekydran plague that was seeded on Ioccal.”

“Are we assuming that is the end of the modification cycle?” Dr. Idylle prodded. “We have evidence that the Chekydran have mastered time-delayed attacks.”

Raj stared at Dr. Idylle, the blood draining from his face. “I don’t know. I have less than nothing on the organism nestling into their gray matter.”

“Perhaps it’s time to lift and leave the Chekydran far behind,” Dr. Idylle concluded.

“And go where?” Raj asked, the faint echo of bitterness in his hollow tone.

It brought Jayleia’s gaze up to Raj’s face.

Damen swiveled around to peer at him.

“We’ve been tossed out on our scientific ears,” Raj said.

“Tossed out?” Pain stabbed through her. “TFC banished you and the
Sen Ekir
? Because of me?”

Dr. Idylle sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. “I suspect from a political standpoint that, yes, we were accused of treason as a means of putting pressure on you.”

“And by extension, my father,” she murmured.

“My actions, however, created a situation whereby the president of Tagreth Federated could make the accusation in the first place,” he said.

“You went straight to the
Dagger
after I kidnapped Jayleia,” Damen surmised, a glimmer of amusement in his voice, “rather than registering a protest with your political body.”

“It seemed the logical course of action at the time,” Dr. Idylle said.

“If you were with the
Dagger
.” Damen frowned at her crewmates. “Who escorted you here? Admiral Seaghdh wouldn’t have allowed you to follow a data signal without armed escort.”

“My daughter hardly allowed Admiral Seaghdh a word edgewise between demanding complete copies of our data and barking orders for Captain V’kyrri to follow us,” Dr. Idylle grumbled.

Damen started, a smile growing on the mobile half of his face. “The
Queen’s Rhapsody
? Will you open a line, Dr. Idylle? I’d like . . .”

“Captain V’kyrri and his crew brought us in, waited until we gave them the all clear, then they turned around to investigate some odd readings at the edge of this sector,” Dr. Idylle said.

Jay felt the blood rush from her head. “Hail them! Turn them around!”

“I’ll go to the
Kawl Fergus
,” Damen said. “Compatible systems have greater reach.”

Alarm tightened both Dr. Idylle’s and Raj’s expressions.

“Teleport?” Dr. Idylle said.

“Faster to open the airlock,” Jay said.

Dr. Idylle strode to the com and opened the channel. “Pietre, open main doors, please. Repeat, open main doors.”

“Acknowledged,” Pietre replied. “Opening main doors. Good to have you back in one relative piece, Jay.”

“Let’s see how long that’s going to last,” she grumbled.

“Clear skies at the moment,” Pietre said.

“Glad to hear it, but why are the skies clear?” she muttered glancing at Damen.

He shook his head. “Why didn’t the ore scouts follow them in?”

Jay looked to her boss. “Dr. Idylle? Do we have an extra com badge for Major Sindrivik? Mine is aboard the
Kawl Fergus
; I’ll pick it up.”

“Excellent idea,” her boss said, nodding. “Pietre? A com badge for Major Sindrivik, if you please. Meet us at the door.”

“Acknowledged.”

“I recommend powering up your teleporter,” Damen said as they strode for the door. “Keep it on hot standby.”

“You said these Chekydran aren’t a threat. What’s out here that we’d have to teleport away from?” Raj demanded.

Jayleia shook her head. “We were on our way from Swovjiti to the
Dagger
. Eluding the biomech soldiers and their ships brought us out to this sector.”

“We were attacked by a trio of UMOPG ships,” Damen said.

“Com badge,” Pietre said, approaching from the cockpit. He started, his dark eyes widening as he surveyed the scar on Damen’s face. “Twelve Gods, Damen, what happened to you?”

“The UMOPG happened,” Damen said, affixing the badge to his shirt pocket. “They’ve established a military presence at the edge of this system and altered a trio of ore scouts. V’kyrri’s flying right into their sights.”

The airlock light flashed and the doors opened.

Damen sprinted off the ship and angled for the
Kawl Fergus
.

“UMOPG?” Pietre sputtered. “They carry rudimentary armaments. They’re miners, not military.”

“They are now,” Jayleia countered, leading the way out of the
Sen Ekir
. “The scouts that hit us had been modified for stealth, speed, and firepower. Have a look at the damage they did to Damen’s ship.”

Pietre’s com badge beeped. He activated it. “Sindrivik?”

“Tell Jayleia I know how we were lured,” Damen said, his voice shaking. “And I think I have an ID on the sentient life-forms that altered the crystal.”

“What crystal?” Pietre asked.

Alarm shrilled in Jayleia’s head. She pounded up the
Kawl Fergus
’s ramp, into the companionway, then froze in the cockpit entrance, staring. The blown-out console above communications had been replaced by a brilliant yellow crystalline structure.

Her heart rose to her throat.

The Chekydran-ki had apparently been repairing the ship, using crystals to fill the voids. Assuming these yellow crystals bore any relation to the rock fused to the
Kawl Fergus
’s engine feed. From the pulse and flow of light and energy through them, she gathered they did.

Damen, seated in what remained of his pilot’s chair, met her gaze, and nodded.

“The original crystal was bait,” he concluded.

“Okay. We suspected,” she said. “Have you heard from V’kyrri?”

“Emergency hail active,” he replied. “Awaiting a response.”

“Three Hells! Your O
₂
generator melted!” Pietre exclaimed from the outer doorway. “What is this yellow stuff? Sindrivik, what have you been doing?”

“Is this blood at the outer door?” Raj called. “This is blood. What the . . .”

The com panel trilled. Jayleia nearly jumped out of her skin.

Damen opened the channel.

“. . .
se hobhaille no’whyn
,” a male voice said.

“
Queen’s Rhapsody
! Code Nwylth-Corem-39. Recall. Recall. Recall. This is the
Kawl Fergus
,” Damen said. “Major Damen Sindrivik . . .”

“Sindrivik! You were reported missing!” V’kyrri’s voice broke over the line.

“Turn around!” Damen demanded. “Now!”

“Glad to have you back, but we’ve got radioactive debris to check out,” V’kyrri countered.

“It’s the remains of the attack force that all but destroyed the
Kawl Fergus
,” Damen countered. “If the Chekydran-ki hadn’t shown up to rescue us, Jayleia and I would have been reduced to free-floating particles. Get out of there!”

“Chekydran?” V’kyrri barked. “Helm! Reverse course! Get us turned! Pour on the speed.”

“Aye, Captain!”

“On our way to your location!” V’kyrri said. “
Queen’s Rhapsody
, out.”

“
T
HE ore scouts were destroyed?” Jayleia frowned, instinct whispering that the data mattered. “Why?”

Damen glanced over his shoulder at her. “What?”

“Why were those ships destroyed? The Chekydran-ki didn’t have to burn them down in order to rescue us,” Jayleia said. “Why destroy UMOPG ships and not the
Kawl Fergus
? What did they know about you that suggested you might be an ally? What was it about those UMOPG ships that warranted a destroy-on-sight order?”

“We did have the crystal,” he said, frowning. “You think that firefight indicates prior history between UMOPG and the Chekydran?”

“We know that three Chekydran ships attacked and damaged the
Dagger
,” she said.

“Yet rather than destroy the
Dagger
, the Chekydran made a run for it,” Dr. Idylle finished from behind her.

Jayleia eased into the cockpit to give the older man space in the doorway.

“Suggesting they had other orders,” Damen surmised.

“They attacked Silver City along with a contingent of biomech soldiers,” she said.

Interest sparked in Dr. Idylle’s face. “Did they?”

“They abandoned a crippled enemy to strike Silver City. That sounds like a grudge,” Jayleia said. “The only data the Chekydran-ki had on the
Kawl Fergus
when they rescued rather than destroyed us, was that we weren’t UMOPG. The ship configuration is different and three ore scouts were trying to take us apart.”

“We did have the crystal in contact with the engine feed,” Damen said. “It was broadcasting and our energy output was similar to the ore scouts’.”

She considered that. “Then the UMOPG has integrated similar crystals into their weapons and shields?”

Damen nodded. “It would account for the increased energy output. Which means that unless they’ve found a way to circumvent it, their ships broadcast, too. I’ll transfer my files to the
Dagger
. We’ll find a way to track it.”

“What if the Chekydran-ki already have? Is that how they saw through the cloaks the scouts were using?” Jay said.

“Even if they had, we’re still left with more questions than answers,” Damen said. “Why rescue us? We could have proven to be anyone or anything.”

“Except they recruited you,” she said, and once again she’d merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The realization hurt. Interesting. What did it mean to want to be part of something so badly that she was willing to be modified by the Chekydran?

“Your theory regarding the Chekydran and UMOPG may have a basis in fact,” Damen said. “We pulled first contact information on the Chekydran last year. I noticed a pattern. When offered a choice between two or more ships, they prefer to attack UMOPG flagged vessels.”

“Suggesting an acrimonious history between the Mining Guild and the Chekydran that we know nothing about,” Dr. Idylle said.

“We have Silver City’s data store,” Damen replied. “With time, the loan of Pietre, and a few tools, I’ll find that history. It might give us something to go on.”

“Pietre!” Dr. Idylle shouted down the companionway. “You’re with Major Sindrivik.”

Damen launched himself out of his chair. “We’ll get on data recovery.”

“I’ll do my job,” Jayleia said, an odd swell of contentment settling into her chest at having Damen and her crewmates working in concert while she observed an unknown species. “Dr. Idylle, if you’ll join me in the medical bay, I have bloodworm samples you and Raj might find interesting.”

She led the way past the open engine compartments, where Pietre already prowled, staring and muttering at the crystalline structures melded to the engine alloys.

Raj stood in medical, his handheld out and active, confusion in his black eyes.

“It’s obvious the crystal is meant to repair your systems,” he said, “but to what purpose? I can’t get a response out of diagnostics.”

“The energy signature is wrong,” she replied, then scowled. How did she know that? Where had it come from? A surge of displacement washed through her. A hum resonated inside her skull, dumping her out of the pilot’s seat of her own body. The buzz in her head stilled and the sensation vanished. She was once again in control of her body and she knew how to alter the handheld’s signal to bridge the interface gap.

She cleared her throat to unseat the odd feeling of having another intelligence supplying knowledge to her. “Do you have translation loaded, Raj?”

He nodded and offered her the handheld.

She used it to open the sample stasis chamber, then handed the unit back before gathering sampling equipment and loading into her equipment belt. She finally positioned herself in the doorway where she could catch glimpses of Damen as he collected tools.

“Data chips?” he asked her.

“Cockpit,” she said. “My com badge?”

“Same,” he said. He retrieved the bag of data chips and brought her badge.