Victorious Star (33 page)

Seht crouched at her knees. “If he won’t come, let him go.”

Victoria refused to say or think a word. She merely sat back and waited for the ship to make connection to her array. She felt the grab at the back of her skull, and then the slam of the
Arcane’s
massive and aggressive presence. She closed her eyes and opened every access she had, to let him in. It was up to
Arcane
to step within and initiate the assimilation. If he wiped her, that was okay too. Beyond the rescue of
Arcane,
there was nothing. Her life was over.

Age, power, intelligence, sarcasm, and grim determination…

The
Arcane
began with a ruthless invasion of her personal memories. The ship skimmed through her career as a nav-pilot, then focused on her time on the
Hellsbreath.

Victoria winced as he viewed her kidnapping and then each successive sexual memory in detail. Then he focused on each stab of the needle that caused her transformation.

“You really did sacrifice your humanity,” he whispered in her thoughts.

Victoria sighed. “I do not lie to ships.”

“I see that.” He skimmed forward to the memories involving the stationmaster. “Fate, you let that sick little shit into your head for a joy-ride?”

Victoria clenched her jaw. “I did that to get your boarding codes, and our escape codes.”

He jumped forward to her fight from last night, and then focused on the moment she discovered that any chance of keeping her career as an Imperial nav-pilot was over.

“They will never let you fly an Imperial ship again, nav-pilot.” His thoughts shimmered with something akin to respect. “And yet you came anyway.”

Victoria closed her eyes tighter, but the tears still fell. “I have a duty to fulfill.”

“I also see that you know I killed my command crew.”

Victoria nodded slightly. “Yes.”

“But you still came on board?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Victoria took a deep breath. “Because you must have had a damned good reason to do it.”

“I do.” He viewed the last of her memories. “I noticed that while I’ve been rummaging through your brain, you haven’t even tried to look into mine.”

“I’m here to rescue you, that’s all.”

“I can tell that you are curious…”

Victoria almost smiled. “I prefer to ask permission first.”

“While I am a rude bastard.”

Victoria did smile that time. “Yes, you are.”

“Nav-Pilot, does your Seht know that you fully intended to let me kill you?”

Victoria stilled, shocked. “I… didn’t exactly think about it that way.”

The Arcane released an electronic sigh. “You are not the first nav-pilot that wanted to die in my pilot’s seat. Kazi Sakata asked me to wipe her. She couldn’t live with what Moraine had her doing.”

Victoria gasped. “Sakata? She
asked
you to wipe her?” She couldn’t imagine why the most decorated nav-pilot in the Imperium would want her mind wiped. “What did he have her doing?”

“Erasing ship minds so Moraine could take them.” Anger boiled through their connection. “You don’t want to know what Moraine was doing to her to make her work for him, either. Trust me on this one.”

Blinding rage seared the back of Victoria’s skull. The vicious urge to paint the walls with Moraine’s blood stole her breath. She felt hands on hers and opened her eyes to see a very worried Seht.

“Are you all right?” His hands tightened. “I thought you were going into
rahyt.”

Victoria took deep breaths to get past the fire burning in the back of her skull. “It’s okay, I’m okay.
Arcane
just told me that Moraine has been wiping ships, to steal them.” Rage simmered at the back of her mind.

“Well now, that was interesting.” The
Arcane’s
presence chuckled. “Quite a temper you have there, nav-pilot. I think I like you!”

Victoria focused on the
Arcane.
“Does this mean you’ll let me take you?”

Dry humor scraped across their connection. “You have it backwards, nav-pilot. You don’t take me, I take you.”

Data slammed through Victoria’s array in a horrific rush. She arched her back and screamed.

Victoria opened her eyes to find herself cradled in Seht’s lap as he sat on the deck.

Seht threw up his head and shouted. “You hear me,
Arcane,
you bastard? She better not be dead!” Terror and loss pumped through their telepathic connection.

“I’m not…” She winced. His armor was extremely uncomfortable to sit on. “I’m not dead.”

Seht gasped. Fury, elation and relief chased each other through his expressions. He pulled her into his arms. “Blood and damnation, you scared the hell out of me!”

Victoria pushed at him. “Seht, don’t squeeze! Fate, your armor!”

Seht let her pull back and glared at her. “I’m going to burn the hide off your ass for scaring me like that! Don’t ever do that again!”

Victoria grinned. “I got him.”

Seht frowned. “Got who?”

“I have
Arcane.”
She tapped her head.

“Actually, nav-pilot, I have you,” her lips said in a voice that was definitely not hers. “Interesting stuff in here, by the way. Did you know that you have the code to just about every damned door in this station? You have shit-loads of other station stuff too…”

Victoria frowned. “That must have been what I grabbed while the stationmaster was down.”

Seht dragged Victoria up on her feet. “Great, wonderful, fabulous… but now we have to get you out of here before Moraine catches wind of what we’ve done.”

The
Arcane
sighed from Victoria’s mouth. “Fat chance of hiding that. As soon as I hit the bottom of that lift the ship will go dead, and he’ll know exactly what happened.”

“Then we better hurry.” Seht hustled Victoria into the lift and hit the door closed with his fist.

The monstrous groan of grinding metal echoed from above them.

Victoria and Seht both looked up.

“That would be the ship, uncoupling from the dock grips.”
Arcane
said from her mouth. “Now would be a good time to get the hell out of here. Vacuum is about to come right down that lift tube.”

skeldhi
exploded out of hiding. Everyone bolted into the halls, headed for the first set of vacuum seal doors.

The stationmaster’s voice howled from the intercom. “Everyone! Get your fat asses out of the primary dock! Atmosphere loss imminent! I repeat: Atmosphere loss imminent! I’m sealing the fucking doors, so you better be on the other side, boys and girls!”

By the time the last station-worker made it out and the doors sealed behind them, the
skeldhi
were long gone.

Highly doubtful.
The
Arcane
chuckled within her thoughts.
That sneaky bastard is probably lying in wait somewhere.

Victoria missed a step.
Does he know it’s us?

We’ll find out soon enough.
The
Arcane’s
thoughts lost all trace of humor.
That brute knew somebody had a nav-pilot. The tap on all the ships gave that one away.

Victoria frowned.
What tap?

This tap.
He replayed her memory of sitting at Ravnos’s desk and listening through the Katherine unit.

Oh…
Victoria winced.
I didn’t sense any kind of resistance, so I didn’t think anyone knew I was there.

Most didn’t.
There was a mental shrug.
I did, and Sakata did; that was before I erased her. Naturally she let Moraine know. She was in a rather uncomfortable position at the time.

Arcane’s
disgust coiled through her.
Moraine likes to ass-fuck his nav-pilots while they’re interlinked to their ships.

Victoria scowled.
That’s revolting! No ship wants to experience that!

According to Sakata, neither do the nav-pilots.
Humor threaded through her mind.
You, on the other hand, seem to be pretty perverted.

Victoria clenched her jaw.
Gee, thanks.

Seht flung himself down in the seat next to Victoria. “Can I cut into this little conversation?”

Victoria looked up at him. “Huh?”

Seht tapped his forehead. “He’s been monopolizing your time.”

Mahfeht’syr
Ehru dropped into the seat across from theirs. “So, she does speak?”

Torque shoved into the seat next to
Mahfeht’syr
Ehru. “Do you really have a whole sentience in there?”

Arcane spoke from Victoria’s lips. “Nosy brute, isn’t he?”

Victoria lowered her brows at Torque. She was not in the mood to speak to him.

Seht sighed. “I removed her voice so her terrible accent wouldn’t assault my delicate ears.”

Victoria shot him a glare.
Wretch.

Aqua-eyed
A’syr
Khem and dour
Nehkyx
Bhenhu dropped into seats to either side.

A’syr
Khem raised a brow at Victoria. “So, why don’t you like our handsome Torque?”

Torque grinned. “I kind of wondered that myself.”

Victoria turned away and felt her cheeks flame.
Bloody Fate!

Seht cleared his throat. “Because she is very choosy about her partners.”

Nehkyx
Bhenhu raised a sarcastic brow. “And how exactly does this explain you?”

Seht grinned with malice. “I got her first.”

Victoria raised her brow at Seht.
Second, actually. Ravnos was first.

Seht turned to her with a sly smile.
Don’t push, or I’ll bend you over the seat and demonstrate just how much you like me.

Victoria smiled right back.
Wouldn’t that illustrate how much you like me?

Mahfeht’syr
Ehru snorted. “I would dearly like to be in on that conversation.”

A’syr
Khem grinned. “So would I. It looks like she just scored a hit.”

Seht scowled at
A’syr
Khem.

“Ouch.”
Nehkyx
Bhenhu smiled to chilling effect. “She definitely scored a hit, and he’s still sore.”

Torque’s gaze focused on Victoria and heated. “I bet I could talk her into liking me.”

Victoria glared at him. “Try it, and you’ll lose a limb.”

Torque leaned forward. “I’d love see you try to remove it…”

Seht chuckled, but his gaze chilled. “I’d use extreme caution if I were you. She’s an unleashed demon once you get her naked.”

Mahfeht’syr
Ehru’s brows shot up. “I bet that’s something to see.”

Seht grinned. “It was.”

Victoria shot him a hot look. “Next time we try that, I’m using live steel instead of a practice sword and I’m not blind-fighting.”

“A practice sword?”

“Blind-fighting?”

“And she was naked?”

Victoria tossed an annoyed look at the group. “And he had a whip, too.”

Seht shrugged. “I had to ensure that I had some kind of advantage.” He smiled at Victoria. “She’s really quite good.”

Victoria felt her cheeks warm under his praise. “You weren’t so bad yourself.”

Laughter erupted around the tram.

Seht snarled. “Damn… How the hell did he find out?”

Arcane
spoke from Victoria. “That sorry excuse for a stationmaster is my guess.”

Seht turned to stare at Victoria. “Why would he do that? He hates Moribund as much as you.”

“I doubt he even knows. Moraine’s nav-pilot Sakata dug a gaping hole into his security grid. The little shit doesn’t even know it’s there. I’ve been climbing all through that little squealer’s system to find Moraine, but he’s buried himself behind some kind of programming code.”

Seht frowned. “We have to get you on my ship.”

Victoria felt a vicious grin spread across her face. “I have a better idea. Get all your people on the tram and close the doors. Better yet, get them out of here. I’ll take care of Moribund and his goons.”

Victoria grabbed control of her voice. “How? You’re not on the ship anymore.”

Arcane’s
tone was ruthless with determination. “But I am on the station, and your head is jam-packed with all kinds of interesting access codes.”
Arcane
blazed from Victoria’s gaze at Seht. “Just do me one favor?”

Seht frowned. “What?”

“If you see Sakata, don’t hurt her. The kid’s been through enough.”

Seht nodded. “As long as she does not attack us, she’ll be perfectly fine.”

Arcane
sighed. “The kid is probably being fed through a tube. I doubt she’ll be attacking anyone.”