Rystani Warrior 04 - The Quest (23 page)

“CAPTAIN TAYLOR.” Ranth’s smoothly modulated voice startled her. Angel wasn’t accustomed to a computer speaking on her bridge, never mind interrupting the conversation. “The Kraj and botcops have discovered your escape route into the mag system. They’ve also found vidrecordings of you and Kirek in the restaurant. Soon they will extrapolate from this data that you are aboard the
Raven.
I would advise we depart.”

“So now you’re giving me advice?” Angel’s mind worked at warp speed. She had no idea how Ranth knew what he did, but clearly he’d tied into local botcop communications—which wasn’t legal. The computer’s vast resources excited her but also sent a shiver of apprehension down her spine. Having a sophisticated machine that she didn’t trust feeding her data and running her ship made her distinctly uncomfortable. However, that discomfort didn’t stop her from seeing marvelous possibilities—ones that might save their lives.

“My function is to advise and aide your mission,” Ranth stated.

Angel was certain that Kirek had programmed the computer’s mission and that made her more uneasy. “Our landing gear is locked. We can’t leave.”

“My new technology will allow us to break the locks,” Ranth disagreed.

“Do it.”

“Compliance.”

“Landing gear is free,” Petroy confirmed. “The gear contracted, and the locks fell off.”

Angel should have felt relief, but instead her suspicions increased. “Who’s in change of this ship?” Angel asked Ranth.

“Angel Taylor is the
Raven’s
captain.”

“Suppose Kirek countermands my orders?” Angel asked, without expecting an answer. Her question was complicated by protocol, and most computers would simply ignore it. But apparently Ranth followed human syntax and could infer her meaning in a human-like manner.

“My ethics program allows me to decide what to do. For example if the captain orders me to self-destruct—for no logical reason—and if Kirek countermands your order, I would obey him.”

Wow. Not only had the computer not avoided answering, as she had expected, it had given her an
example. Despite her mistrust, she was growing to like Ranth the more she knew about him.

“Can I lock Kirek out of your systems?” she asked.

“No, Captain.”

“Why not?” She glared at Kirek who shrugged.

“Kirek has the ability to override even my program and will with his psi. No computer specialist has yet figured a way to stop him, but my experience has shown that he won’t interfere unless the mission or lives are in jeopardy.”

“How comforting.” She scowled at Kirek, who had had the good sense to remain silent, but she was far from over her anger. Obviously Ranth and Kirek had a history, and she suspected they’d gone on other missions together. That didn’t mean she had to accept his interference. She continued to glare at Kirek. “Get off my bridge.”

“You need me.” Kirek didn’t budge and spoke softly, but she heard the grave edge of determination in his tone. “I know how to run the special technology on this ship.”

“Terrific. You alter the technology then tell me I need you to run it?” Angel supposed she could use Ranth to teach her the
Raven’s
new capabilities, but even she could see beyond her anger and realized that escape from the Kraj was the first priority. “Ranth, start engines, get us far enough out of Dakmar space to jump to hyperdrive.” She scowled at Kirek. “We still have a hyperdrive?”

He nodded and changed the subject. “Captain, I’d like your permission to send an encrypted message to Numan.”

Encrypted? Angel supposed that meant the Kraj couldn’t track their communications, which was another useful tool and a very expensive gadget that Kirek had added, which only served to increase her anger all over again. Her debt reminded her of Kirek’s lack of trust in her. She also wondered what would happen if she refused his “request” and suspected he’d send the message anyway. “What kind of message?”

“I’d like to cut time off our journey.”

“How?”

“I’ll arrange to purchase the reader as well as for a ship to transport it to meet us halfway.”

“Fine.” She might be furious with Kirek, but she wouldn’t shoot down a good idea just because of her seething emotions. Just because she was still shaking with the need to scream at him and pound the walls with her fists. Just because she knew that their personal relationship was over.

Done.

He’d lied to her because he hadn’t trusted her enough to talk about the
Raven’s
upgrades, and he’d ruined their fling, squashing any chance for enjoying the mission in his arms. She shuddered, wondering how anyone so likeable could be so secretive, so insensitive. He couldn’t have wounded her more if he’d stolen her ship and shot her. Pain radiated out of every tense nerve and pounded her brain. Her head ached, and her stomach twisted with nausea.

Petroy stared at his vidscreen. “Captain, the Dakmar officials are refusing to give us permission to depart.”

“Damn.” Angel wondered if they’d have to shoot their way free and was about to punch up their weapons’ capability when the computer made a suggestion, startling her once again.

“Do you wish the
Raven
to employ shapeshifting mode?” Ranth asked.

“Shapeshifting mode?” She’d never heard of such a thing but suspected that the new modification had a lot to do with the shimmering
bendar
walls.

“I can change the
Raven’s
hull shape so it will appear to the officials that we are a transport ship—one that has permission to depart.”

“Do it.” Angel hung onto her console as before her eyes, the hull expanded, as if it were a balloon taking in more air. The bridge lengthened, widened, and deepened, tripling in volume.

“Captain, isn’t this new technology amazing?” Petroy’s face glowed with excitement.

“Amazing,” she repeated, her mind trying to take it all in and failing. She’d thought the shielding would reflect a new size on only the Dakmar officials’ vidscreens. She didn’t expect the
Raven’s
hull to actually change shape and enlarge, which it did until her ship was three to four times larger than the original.

“Ranth, do we have permission to leave?” Angel asked as she strode around her new bridge, trying to take in the ambiance. “What are these new stations for?” The
Raven
now possessed several consoles whose purpose she didn’t even recognize. Obviously, she had room for more crew to run the new technology, but since she hadn’t known about the changes, she hadn’t thought to take on crew for tasks she was ignorant about.

“The authorities are arguing with the Kraj,” Ranth told her. “The Kraj are asking them to stop all ships from leaving until you are caught.”

“You’re intercepting Kraj transmissions?” she asked.

“Affirmative.”

“Can you make the Dakmar authorities believe that the Kraj have changed their minds and are allowing us to leave?”

Looking relieved at her question, Kirek moved in front of one of the new consoles. His hands danced over the controls. “I’ll take care of it.”

No doubt he’d wanted to make the suggestion several minutes ago but had restrained himself from taking over, likely sensing she couldn’t have coped with more insubordination, disobedience—defiance? She didn’t even know the right words for what he’d done. The irony was that she trusted no one at those new controls more than Kirek. Kirek would get them out of here because his mission required it. Stars help her if she ever stood between him and his mission, because he could be secretive and ruthless when necessary. But he wrapped those traits in a man who at first and second and maybe even third glance, seemed easygoing and laid-back. It was still hard for her to believe that the same man who had made love to her with such gentleness and sensitivity could have gone behind her back and stomped all over her trust.

“The consoles have many purposes,” Ranth explained. “They allow access to my new systems, the shapeshifting mode, the new weapons, and a tracking system for inventory.”

“Inventory?”

“The cargo hold is full.”

The
Raven
didn’t have a cargo hold. Or it hadn’t until Kirek had
…
She called up the cargo manifest on her vidscreen and bit back a gasp. Their entrance through engineering had bypassed the cargo bay which now held spare parts, spare engines, tools of every kind and description, welding machines, spacesuits, extra shuttles, enough food for years, entertainment for children and babies
…
What was Kirek thinking? In the last hour he’d thrown shock after shock at her, but of one thing she was certain: There would be no babies on the
Raven.

“It appears as if this mission is to colonize the Andromeda Galaxy, not fight the Zin.”

Kirek appeared to be in deep communication, but he heard her and broke off from his work. “I like to be prepared.”

“For children?”

He shrugged. “When Tessa and Kahn lived on Rystan, they didn’t know the Endekians would invade and force them to abandon in a ship—the one I was born on. My mother told me there were no toys.”

“Even I know a baby doesn’t need toys,” she snapped.

“We brought every child we could save with us.” His voice filled with pain, as if he
remembered
crying children, worried parents, and the catastrophe that had caused his parents to lose their home world—but he’d only been a baby. Could his mind have already been so developed as an infant that he possessed genuine memories?

At the time, the Rystani had believed their world had been invaded by the Endekians who wanted glow stones, a natural atomic rock indigenous to Rystan. What they found out over a decade later was that the Zin had opened a wormhole to Endeki, and the only way to stop the Zin from sending a deadly virus through the wormhole had been to use Rystani glow stones to blow it up.

So the Zin had cost him his homeland. The Zin were the reason Kirek had been born in hyperspace. The Zin were responsible for Kirek’s being caught in a blast to protect Earth that had robbed him of the use of his body for almost a decade. Now the Zin had destroyed the Federation capital planet Zenon, killing billions.

She supposed that her beef with him seemed petty in comparison. Yet, she could no more stop her feelings of betrayal than she could have talked him out of his mission. He’d hurt her because of who he was and who she was. While she understood on a logical level that saving the galaxy from the Zin was more important than his being honest with her, on an emotional level she held back disappointment and anger.

“We have permission to leave.” Kirek’s tone was official and cool, as if knowing that one more surprise might cause her to unleash her rage.

“Take us out of here,” Angel ordered Petroy.

“I’ve purchased the reader,” Kirek informed them, and she realized he’d been simultaneously speaking to her, changing the Kraj communications, and continuing to maintain contact with Numan, all without showing any strain.

“That was fast work,” Angel muttered.

“More like hyperspeed,” Petroy added.

“He probably paid ten times too much for the reader,” Angel speculated.

Kirek sighed, his tone defensive and irritated. “I can’t worry about saving a few credits when we must focus on the Zin.”