Stars of Blood and Glory (16 page)

* * * * *

“
Let’s get that distress signal
down,” said Danica. “Carve that gunboat to pieces if you have to,
Tajjashvili—but make sure the princess is still alive.”

“
Understood.”

Rina monitored the distress signal, checking
it for secret codes and anomalies. It didn’t take her long to break
it; the encryption was only basic, and she already had a good
enough knowledge of Hameji protocols to know what she was looking
at. When she found it, she ran it through her private datalink
until she came up with a match.

“
Captain,” she said, “I’ve found
something that might interest you.”

“
Oh?” said Danica, raising an
eyebrow at her. “What is it, Lieutenant?”

“
The distress call contains a
secret code,” she said, bringing it up on her screen. “It’s an
identifier for high-ranking Hameji personnel. This one is for a son
of Qasar, one of the highest ranking fleet commanders under General
Tagatai.”

“
Qasar,” Danica muttered,
bringing her hand to her chin. In the back of the room, Roman
frowned and narrowed his good eye.

“
Which son?” he asked.

“
The son of his youngest wife,”
said Rina. “A woman by the name of Sholpan.”

“
Abaqa. We’re dealing with Prince
Abaqa.”

Rina looked up quickly, barely concealing her
surprise. How did these mercenaries know so much about the
Hameji?

“
Roman, I want you to scour that
gunboat for anything that might prove useful, then scuttle it,”
said Danica. She turned to face her men. “Yuri, how long until we
can jump out?”

“
About three hours at the
earliest,” he said. “But we need longer to make a full
jump.”

“
That’s all right, Lieutenant.
Just get us out of this sector before the Hameji pick up that
signal.”

“
We’re still a good ten to twelve
light hours out from Eyn-Gatta. We’ll be fine.”

Rina frowned at her screen. “Captain, it
appears that the Federation has just lost a major battle at this
system.”

Danica turned to her and frowned. “What did
you say?”

“
I’ve been monitoring the radio
noise,” said Rina, looking up from her station. “There are a lot of
Hameji transmissions, as well as a few distress signals from
Rigelan ships. If the Federation had won the battle, it would be
the other way around.”

“
Are you certain of this?” said
Roman, rising to his feet.

“
I’m afraid she’s right,” said
Yuri. “I’m picking up the same thing. This entire sector is
swarming with Hameji.”

Danica nodded grimly. “In that case, we must
assume that they have pushed the Federation back to New Vela. Keep
the ship-wide alert on level two, and be ready at any time for
action. From here on out, we’re in enemy controlled space.”

A buzzing sounded in Rina’s ear, nearly
making her cringe. She sat back in her chair and rubbed it with her
fingertips, closing her eyes as the intensity increased.

All at once, something in her datalinks
clicked, and she found herself standing—or floating, rather—in a
white, featureless room. All bodily sensation left her as her mind
received a message in the form of raw data.

ATTENTION AGENT: STAND BY AND AWAIT
DIRECTIVE.

An instant later, she was back
on the
Tajji
Flame,
rubbing her head as if she had a headache. The buzzing died
down, and she dropped her hand immediately, pretending as if
nothing had happened. Fortunately, the other officers were too busy
to notice.

Await directive.
She took a deep
breath and instinctively reached down to the pistol on her belt,
confirming that it was there, ready to be used when she needed
it.

Chapter 9

“
Let me go,” Hikaru yelled, her
heart pounding. Explosions sounded through the bulkheads, and for a
moment she feared that the ship would break apart. She wondered if
she should try to make a break for the escape pods, but with her
hands still tied behind her back, there was no way she could get to
them.

She opened her mouth to scream, but Abaqa
appeared in the doorway to the cockpit. His expression was subdued,
but she thought she could see a trace of fear behind his eyes.
That, more than anything else, filled her with glee.

“
So you thought you could pull a
quick one, huh?” she shouted at him. “Well, it didn’t work—so now
let me go!”

“
Let yourself go,” he shot back
at her. Then, kneeling on the floor, he pulled out his gun and
knife and laid them out carefully in front of him.

“
What are you going to do, kill
yourself?” she asked. “If so, good riddance.”

“
Of course not, you slut,” he
hissed. “I’ve just been disabled. Your mercenary friends are going
to be here in moments.”

As if to confirm that, the explosions
stopped, and the awful grinding of metal on metal announced that
someone had docked.

“
So you’re just going to let them
find me tied up like this,” said Hikaru, rolling her eyes. “Great
idea—I’m sure they won’t think you mistreated me.”

“
I could still kill you,” said
Abaqa, his voice low. “My brother Gazan certainly wants me
to.”

“
Oh yeah? Then why haven’t
you?”

“
Because I don’t think you’re
worth dying over.”

The airlock door hissed open, and a massive,
broad-shouldered man charged through. He was more than a full head
taller than Hikaru, and the muscles on his arms and chest were
huge, evident even under his dark brown battle armor. Though he
looked as strong as one of the palace samurai, wrinkles creased his
forehead just beneath his helmet. She looked up at his age-worn
face and realized that one of his eyes was prosthetic. It glowed a
dull red, like a laser waiting to be fired.

“
Help!” she managed to scream,
doing her best to look helpless. The old soldier glanced at her for
a second, but kept his assault rifle trained on Abaqa. He grunted
something in a foreign language, and two other soldiers stormed in,
surrounding the Hameji prince and making him lie with his face on
the ground.

“
You are Princess Hikaru?” the
old man asked, his voice low and gravelly. Hikaru
nodded.

“
I had to keep her this way,”
said Abaqa as the soldiers tied his hands forcibly behind his back.
“None of her injuries are permanent.”

“
And her clothes?” muttered the
old man.

“
Next to the bunk.
Ow!”

The soldiers lifted Abaqa bodily
to his feet and stood on either side of him, guns jammed into his
sides. Hikaru smiled to herself as he winced in pain.
Serves you
right.

“
Take him to the brig,” said the
old soldier, adding something in his own language. The soldiers
nodded and dragged the boy prince off through the
airlock.

“
Help,” cried Hikaru, struggling
against her bonds for effect.

“
Do not be afraid,” said the old
man. “I free you now. Stay still.” He knelt down beside her and
pulled out a large laser-knife from a sheath on his chest plate—one
just as large as Abaqa’s, though it didn’t look nearly so awkward
on him. Hikaru held perfectly still as he reached behind her and
cut the bonds on her wrists before moving to her feet.

“
Thank you,” she said, rubbing
her sore, bruised wrists. The man’s armor was scratched and dented,
and smelled of old, faded perspiration, making her forget how much
she stank after the last few days. As for her lack of clothing,
however, she was acutely aware of that—especially as he checked her
over.

“
How do you feel?” he
asked.

“
Sore,” she said, stretching out
her legs and rubbing them down. She watched him out of the corner
of his eye to gage his reaction, but his cyborg face was difficult
to read.

“
Can you walk?”

“
I—I don’t know,” she said, more
to see what he would do than because she didn’t think she
could.

To her delight, he scooped her gently up and
carried her in his arms through the airlock. She held on tightly
with her face close to his, the scent of his heady musk filling her
nostrils.

“
Do not worry,” he told her as
they walked down the dimly lit corridor. “You are safe now,
Princess. I will leave you with Doctor Avanadze. She will tend to
you.”

“
Th-thank you.”

“
My name is Roman Andrei
Krikoryan. Our captain is Danica Nova. Your brother has sent us to
bring you home.”

Not right away, I
hope
, she
almost said aloud. Instead, she faked some tears and clung to the
old cyborg mercenary with all the tenacity of a little girl. If
this was what it felt like to be rescued, she almost wanted to be
captured again.

* * * * *

The door to Danica’s quarters hissed open.
“Ah, Roman,” she said, smiling warmly. “Please, come in.”

Roman stepped into the immaculately furnished
room. Four authentic mahogany bookshelves stood off to his left,
while a dark leather couch sat across from a pair of armchairs that
were almost as old as the ship itself. A painting adorned the wall
above the couch, showing an ancient tribal hovercraft speeding
across the rocky wastes of Tajjur V.

To the homeworld,
he thought as he
installed himself in one of the armchairs. Surrounded by antiques
from his country, he couldn’t help but feel a familiar pang of loss
and regret.

“
Would you like something to
drink, Roman?”

“
No, thank you,” he said. “I am
well, Captain.”

“
Suit yourself.”

She walked in carrying a mug of steaming hot
coffee. From the rich, bittersweet aroma, it was without a doubt an
authentic Tajji blend. Roman raised an eyebrow—he’d thought that
the ship had run out of Tajji-grown coffee years ago. She must have
been under a great deal of stress to break into her personal stores
only now.

“
I trust that Yuri has taken us
away from the distress beacon?”

“
Yes, Captain. Our next jump will
be in one hour.”

“
Good,” she said, nodding. “And
the gunboat?”

“
Scuttled, as ordered. We
mirrored gunboat’s computer core and recovered some personal items
first.”

“
Such as?”

Roman shrugged. “Some knives, another flight
suit, small picture-player with images of his family.”

“
Make sure that he doesn’t know
we have them.”

“
Of course, Captain.”

“
I’d also like to see that
picture-player,” Danica added. “Does it have any images of his
mother?”

“
I do not know.”

“
I don’t suppose it matters, but
I’ve always wondered what happened to that girl. Sholpan—the
universe must have a strange sense of humor to bring us her
son.”

Roman nodded and patted the captain’s knee.
She looked up at him and smiled—an old smile, but not unlike the
one she’d had almost fifteen years ago, after their first mission
against the Hameji. He still thought of the young boy whose sister
they’d tried to rescue, though he’d long forgotten his name. Danica
never forgot names—or faces, for that matter.

“
What do you plan to do with
Hameji prince?” Roman asked.

“
I don’t know,” she said. “It
depends who’s willing to pay more for him: the Federation or the
Hameji.”

Roman grunted. “The Hameji will pay us in
blood before they pay us in money.”

“
That’s what I’m afraid of. Do
you think we should have just left him in the gunboat for the
Hameji to find him?”

“
Of course not. They would still
come for us even if boy were safe.”

She nodded. “You’re right. The older I get,
the more I second-guess myself.”

“
But we do not second-guess you,
Captain,” said Roman. “The men love you—you are like mother to
them. Stern, unyielding mother, perhaps, but mother
nonetheless.”

His words made her smile. “I’m glad to hear
it.”

“
As for Al-Najmi,” he added, “I
learned something interesting. Her people were desert tribesman,
not Imperials—same as Abu Kariym.”

“
Abu Kariym. I wonder whatever
happened to him?”

“
If he did not find rejuvenation,
no doubt he has passed away by now.”

“
Perhaps,” said Danica, taking a
sip of her coffee. She set her mug on a hand-woven coaster on the
antique wooden table in front of them. “With the Federation defeat
at Eyn-Gatta, it’s going to be a little tricky getting
back.”

Roman drew in a deep breath. Danica always
had a way of understating the severity of a situation when they
were slogging through it. Perhaps it was a way to cope with the
stress, but he knew her well enough to tell that she was
worried—perhaps even terrified.

“
Yuri is ready,” he said. “He is
good pilot, even if he is stubborn.”

Danica nodded. “We’ll need Al-Najmi’s help
with this, too. If the Hameji interdict us with jump beacons, we
may need an avid hacker to give them … a surprise.”