Gambit (11 page)

A smile curved across her mouth, breaking through the panicked beat of her heart. He was
her
killing machine. He stopped and her pulse ramped. Daned pointed to the bed. Chae followed his gaze to the solid bunk. Something clinked against its metal sides. Shit.

She clamped her hand to her mouth before she cursed out loud. Her boots. The one with the sliver of black crystal had a gash through the thick leather. As had the secret inner pocket. Now she had no fucking payment.

Chae gritted her teeth. What was it with her and poverty? Why the hell did it love her so much?

Daned backed away from the bed and she remembered that, yes, she was in danger. Being poor didn’t matter right then. Still, it was bloody annoying.

He gripped her Sel-9. The weapon primed, its faint hum lost in the noise of the ship. “Come out. Now.”

Anger burned under his words and she wondered how much of it was frustration. They had less than a quarter of a standard hour before the lock gave out. She’d hoped to spend that being seriously naked with Daned. The cold of the metal at her spine ran goose bumps over her skin. Not the same as Daned’s talented mouth. Not the same at all.

He flexed his fingers around her gun’s grip. “Now, or I set this Sel-9 to full charge and obliterate the bunk.”

The clinks stopped.

“I’ll give you a three count.” He paused. “Three. Two—”

The side of the bunk clanked to the floor and Aleph-Nun rolled out.

Chae blinked and a disbelieving curse shot through her thoughts. What the fuck was Aleph doing under her bed? Her heart tightened. It wasn’t Aleph. Her friend had a scar running down his right ear from the blade of a dissatisfied customer three years before. This Nun-Samekh looked fresh. They’d grown a pod-brother under her bed?

Her stomach turned over. Angered, she jerked up from the floor. Her friend was trying to stiff her over money? Hell, had he lied about her ship to get her on this piece of tau junk? Did he think—know—she had more black crystal hidden? “You’re fresh-grown. They planted a pod—what?—to steal my crappy bit of crystal?”

The stranger sat up, her crystal tight in his clawed hand. “You know nothing.” He glared at Daned, anger sparking in his gaze. “And you’re not just a toy.”

“No.” His shoulders straightened. “Ara-Ladaian security.”

The Samekh’s lips pressed together around his mouth plates. “Chance caught us,” he muttered. “Aleph knew her sexual routine, tagged her and the flesh she bought—”

“What?” Chae resisted the urge to grab her gun from Daned and puree the Samekh’s internal organs. “He tagged me? How?” She let out a groan. “The ambrosia roots.”

“You’re Ladaian.” His gaze slid to her and his thumb rubbed over her crystal, his claw clicking against its polished surface. “Every one of you living beyond the ten planets is watched. The Enan Family pay us well.”

“Hand that over.” Daned snapped his fingers at the sliver. “Now.”

“This?” The Samekh held it up the crystal, turning it so that it caught the spot of light. “I’m afraid you can’t have this back.”

“Now that’s where you’re wrong.” Daned fired, the burst of hot light blazing over the Samekh’s forearm. It should have cut through, sliced into the heavy bone. It didn’t.

He patted the singed fabric of his sleeve, his fingers coming away bloody. Daned upped the charge and fired again. The Samekh simply laughed. “I am Resh-Nun.”

“Resh.” Chae swore and wiped a hand over her mouth. They were so screwed.

Daned flicked a glance at her. “What?”

“Resh is the name given to the final pod-brother. The one who absorbs the pod in which they’re born. It creates an armor over their skin. That—” she waved her hand at her gun, “—won’t even graze him.”

Resh inclined his head toward her, a gesture so reminiscent of Aleph her gut twisted. Her friend had played her from the beginning? She ignored the sour anger rising up from her stomach. Deal with the threat. Then she could mope and be pissed off.

“You were listening when Aleph talked of our race.”

“I’m very observant. I just like my impression of not giving a shit.”

He grinned, his baleen plate gleaming. “Ah, maybe Aleph underestimated you.”

“Story of my life.” She pushed her tangled hair from her face. “So what happens now? Why were you under that bed?” She gave him a hard smile. “The Samekh have no interest in being voyeurs.”

He held up the crystal and a fresh smile curved his thin lips. “I came for this.”

Chae’s smile faded and her brow tightened as realization hit her. “The Enan didn’t pay for Shavgar-7.”

“The Charag orchestrated that little attempt. They knew of this ship.” Resh shook his head. “We knew you would never fall for it.” He pulled in a noisy breath. “And once the ship breaks the lock, I will crush this, and the Ara Family’s chance at the throne will end.”

Daned snorted. “You can’t crush black crystal.”

“You don’t know my race like our friend here does.” Resh pushed himself up and Daned tensed, the hum of the Sel-9 on full charge vibrating through the room. The Samekh dropped onto the hard bunk. “Aleph said that after sex she passes out, a death-sleep that rattles the bulkhead with her snores.”

Chae glared at him. “Insults now?”

Resh pressed his clawed hand between his hearts. “I only report the information gathered from the flesh you rented from my pod-brother.” His dark gaze skimmed Daned’s naked body. “We expected the same from him…but he’s not flesh.”

“So you take the crystal and what?” Her eyes narrowed on him. He was Resh. Resh never left survivors. It was why he was being so very talkative. “Let me go happily on my way?”

“Captain Beyon—Chae—let us not insult each other’s intelligence. The ship will break lock, the crystal will fall to so much powder, and you? You’ll fall with it.”

“Really?” Daned’s fingers gripped her arm and pulled her behind him. “Not going to happen.”

“We’re only minutes from dropping out of lock. In fact…”

The ship shuddered around them. Chae fought to keep her balance, but she toppled back into the door. She gripped the frame, desperate to stay upright. Reality broke around her in the slow seconds of their transition into normal space. Pain seared through her flesh, biting into her bones. She tried to focus, but the agony of exiting the lock unguided made it almost impossible. Her heart ramped. In the fractures of metal and time, Daned attacked.

He smashed into Resh, flattening him to the bed. The Samekh’s distorted roar echoed around the room, and splintered space showed a confused mix of limbs, of Resh’s claws raking Daned’s back—

Light exploded and pressure flung Chae hard into the metal door. She grunted at the fresh burst of pain, her knees gave out and she sank to the floor. Her vision swam. She fought it. She was not dying naked on the floor of a fucking tau-class junk pile. Pain throbbed at her temples and she tried to push herself up. And failed.

The blackness took her.

Chapter Six

“Chae!”

The scent of warm leather shrouded her, pressing against her bare skin. She groaned and moved. Leather creaked and agony stabbed sharp little pins into her skull. She muttered a string of curses and crushed her eyes tight shut against the pain.

“Chae, you have to fly this thing!”

Daned. He was alive too. Warmth washed through her and she hated the relief it brought. She let her head fall back against the padded headrest and willed her eyes to open. “What the hell happened?”

“A Sel-9 fired against Resh’s mouth plate. Not even pod-armored skin can survive that.” He tilted her chin, his gaze narrowed on her face. “Can you focus?”

Chae rolled her eyes and even that simple action hurt. She frowned. “I can see you’re dressed.”

“Always the important stuff.” His warm fingers dropped from her jaw and he sank into the other chair. “You need to fly us down to Ladaia-prime.”

“The Samekh robes do suit you though. Very…official.” Chae scrubbed a hand over her face and fought to focus. Arguments that it hadn’t been her mission, that Ladaia-prime was the most secured planet in the quadrant, skimmed over her thoughts. But she was too tired and ached too much to voice them.

“All right,” she muttered. She gripped the guidance rods, her fingers flexing. The tau was floating dark and dead in space. Only the low whine of the life support thrummed in the engine casements. That was a good sign, at least. Silence meant death.

She ignored the tight pain constricting her chest and ignited the engines. With a roar and four teeth-jarring clangs, the ship kicked into life. It lurched forward and the screen flared. Clear space stretched across the curve of the ship and at the center sat Ladaia-prime, sunlight slicing across the eastern hemisphere.

She grinned. “I’m good. We came out inside the network defenses.” She glanced at Daned. His breathing was shallow and a flush brightened his cheeks. “What’s wrong?”

“Resh caught me with his claws. I’m waiting to heal. It’s normal.”

“Wait…What?”

“Fly, Chae. There was enough residual energy to broadcast my codes. They got us through the defenses.” His breathing quickened and Chae pushed down the hot rush of fear. The man was indestructible. “We were drifting. I have to…” His words died away and his head slumped.

Her stomach turned over and panic hit her. Without thinking, she reached to press her fingers to a pulse point on his neck. His strong, but slowed heartbeat throbbed under her fingertips and a breath escaped her. Damn it, she couldn’t become attached to him. Permanence meant great sex. Nothing more.

She turned back to the controls and let the familiarity of flying fill her thoughts. Black crystal asteroids obscured by vast mining structures orbited the planet, each encased in its own defense network. Her fingers itched and she resisted the urge to fly closer. Daned had opened the way to Ladaia-prime. If she pushed her luck, then a cannon would obliterate her pile-of-crap ship in a heartbeat.

Still…Her gaze wandered over the nearest asteroid, stark light carving out the jagged crystal surface. The mercenary in her felt a sharp tug, bringing with it the need to breach the mining security, grab as much processed black crystal as she could…and bolt.

Chae pulled in a slow breath. Sometimes she had to ignore the greed that drove her. No, get to Ladaia-prime and hope to hell Daned woke up before they hit the atmosphere.

The ship shuddered.

“What the…?” Chae gripped the guidance rods in reflex and scanned the instrumentation. That had been a weakened hit from an energy strike. Blips surged onto the edge of her screen and she held down a low groan. Floating dead with the systems down had kept them off the map. Now they weren’t. “Interceptors.”

The machines were still too far out to do any effective damage. She had to keep that advantage. She shifted her backside against the hot leather of the chair and cursed her nakedness. He couldn’t have thrown on her tunic?

“Should have known my luck wouldn’t last—what?—more than ten minutes.” Chae glanced at Daned. The bright spots in his cheeks had faded and a more even color filled his face. Whatever his body had to do was working. He was right. Ladaians weren’t human. “Right. I’ll do the job you haven’t paid me for…yet.”

She gunned the engines, pushing as much power as she could into the tau. The engines screamed and the hull protested, but she fought to control the ship and stop it from flying apart before they hit the planet’s atmosphere. Powerful vibrations shook the cockpit. Pain lanced across her shoulders and she arched her spine to ease it.

“I think it’s easier to take a hit than to fly you fast,” she muttered.

The proximity alarm whined, cutting through the noise. Chae marked the distance of the approaching energy strike. She cursed and skimmed the defense shield of the nearest asteroid. The hull protested against that too.

“All you do is moan.” She pressed her foot against the console, her knee locking, and braced her body to keep control of the ship. “My outer shell is melting. My engines hurt.” Her whine mixed with the increasing proximity alarm. “Buck up!”

Chae cried out at the shockwave that tore though the ship, but her braced body kept guidance firm. She gritted her teeth. The greater mass of the black crystal had diverted and absorbed the energy strike into its defense network…but more interceptors arrowed toward her.

“Shit, shit, shit.” She tore away from the safety of the asteroid and aimed the ship for Ladaia-prime. “Daned! You have to wake up now!”

He muttered something under his breath and turned his head away. An improvement on the previous coma, but not enough. She had coordinates for landing locked, but she needed his access to the shields surrounding the planet, shields that glowed on the screen in burning-red concentric circles.

Chae cursed and wished she had something to throw at him. “Daned! We are fried if you don’t wake up.”

He twisted against his seat, his borrowed clothes rubbing against the leather. “Chae?”

“Yes. The hot, naked pilot.” A direct strike flung her forward, the harness straining against her chest. She grunted at the sudden, fierce pain. “Codes. Please. Now.”

Daned groaned and pressed a hand to his face. “Codes…” He mumbled the word and his fingers sought out the console in front of him, blindly tapping out a sequence. “I’m not fully healed, you should—”

“A few cramps or blackened and crispy? I prefer living.” The first of the concentric circles faded to gray and Chae willed the ship forward. “Can you bring the shield up behind us?”

Daned squinted at the screen. “They’re automated Ladaian defense ships. They have their own codes.”

“Wonderful.” Another energy strike rocked the ship. The interceptors were close and closing. Each strike wore down her ship. A few more direct hits to the engines and they’d be a tin can in high orbit. Stranded. An easy target. “Then I have to dodge better.”

“Resh crushed the crystal—”

“You have to replace that, you know.” She met his glare. “Just saying.” She swung the ship hard to port, internal metal screaming and her body right along with it.

Daned groaned, but his fingers crawled to the console and he gave them access to the next shield. “The crystal wasn’t your payment. Not that sliver.”