Bonds of Steel (Law and Crucible Saga Book 3) Read online

  But it shouldn’t have been her decision to make. They needed Law. Even if he made a wrong decision, a human had to take responsibility.

  “What will you do if they want to talk to us? Or come on board?” he asked.

  “I have an emergency protocol if we’re attacked, and it allows me to take whatever measures are necessary to protect my crew. Since they’re all in stasis, it won’t be a problem if they’re trying to come on board.”

  Automatically, Del began to devise scenarios in which he stopped Vee before she hurt someone. There were a few possibilities and discouragingly fewer that had the slightest chance of success.

  “My programming is not as permissive as yours,” he said with a huff later on.

  “Oh ... if it bothers you, you can go offline, although I would prefer you to be active. I might need help.”

  “I will remain active as long as possible, but that is all I can do.”

  He made no promises.

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that. For now, I’ll reply to their message.”

  The words appeared on the screen, starting with a long indicative that didn’t seem to end.

  ... we are in quarantine. We have confirmed a plague taken from the Seelis system. We need...

  A lengthy list of active substances followed. Del recognized most of them. Vee wasn’t playing; she’d chosen a plague no one had heard of in two decades.

  “I also sent them the quarantine codes from three months ago, when Law returned from The Pacific, the date updated, of course. That should slow them down a bit.”

  Even longer if they weren’t desperate.

  “You didn’t encrypt the message,” Del noted.

  “It wasn’t needed. We have nothing to hide.”

  Nothing those on the Uliake would have wanted, Del hoped.

  The next message came too soon.

  We’ll enter your communication range in half an hour. We request a live conversation with your captain. We’re sending you new encryption codes.

  “He better not believe I’ll let them infect my system with who knows what nonsense!” Vee said and answered right away.

  Our technology is obsolete. The new encryption codes can’t be used.

  “Ha, let’s see what he has to answer to that!”

  It seemed he had nothing to say because he didn’t reply.

  “Did they alter the course?” Del asked.

  “No.” Vee sighed. “They’re still coming towards us.”

  “Estimated time of contact?”

  “Two hours plus twenty minutes for the docking procedure. That is if they don’t send a faster shuttle.”

  Until contact, the issue of the live call remained to be solved.

  “We need to wake Law,” Del said. “We cannot present a robot or an empty room in front of the camera.”

  And much less an unregistered AI.

  “No ... not Law...”

  “Vee, are you afraid of Law?”

  An inappropriate question in this situation, but he was curious.

  “Of course, I’m afraid of him. Law is the only one who can order to deactivate me and have me removed from the ship forever. There should be something wrong with me not to care if he gets mad at me.”

  If he weren’t so stressed, Del would have found it ironic he was currently in the same situation towards her. How could he help?

  “If not Law, then Eradiez?” he suggested. “Defense is his specialty.”

  And it was just a coincidence Eradiez liked Del after successfully collaborating at the ore retrieval.

  “Eradiez is going to wake Law,” Vee said. “Merrick, though ... he’s more independent. He could decide to act alone and let the others rest. But I would prefer Thea ... she’s new here, but she proved she doesn’t lose her head under pressure and she’s my favorite. She let me fly!”

  He couldn’t argue with such logic, not when Law checked every course Vee mapped. Thea being his patient though, he had to think about what was best for her.

  “Thea’s field is astrophysics. She has little experience with hostile confrontations,” he tried to convince Vee to change her mind.

  “It seems to me she did quite well with Law. And a pleasant face like hers looks well on camera.”

  There was another possibility they hadn’t discussed. Thea’s health hadn’t deteriorated following an accident. Someone, somewhere—Del didn’t know all the details because no one had bothered to inform him—had tried to kill her.

  “What if they’re coming for her?”

  “They’re coming from the wrong direction and it would be easier to contact us via official channels rather than hide,” Vee said. “The probability they’re involved is small enough to take the risk.”

  The confirmation allowed him to release part of the resources used to ensure the safety of his patient. Vee knew better because she had access to more information than he did. He didn’t mention a third alternative, with Thea being an accomplice of those on Uliake and they were coming to ... to do what? There was nothing worth stealing on The Squirrel, even the voyage to it wasn’t worthwhile.

  “We have another twenty minutes until we enter their contact range. It should be enough for her to recover from stasis. Come to the medbay. Don’t forget to bring the chair.”

  3

  Thea removed her arms from around Del’s neck and shifted in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit. They had left her chair on the lower level before climbing up the stairs. No matter how much work they put into it, The Squirrel would never become friendly with disabled passengers.

  “Can you explain why we’re doing this?” Thea whispered, running her fingers through her short black hair, mechanically combing it back.

  Vee had informed her about the situation as soon as Thea overcame the initial panic after leaving stasis, a less common reaction for those accustomed to interplanetary travel. She wasn’t asking that.

  “Because we depend on her?” Del said as quietly, although Vee heard everything they said.

  Thea grimaced, and with an obvious effort in her slow movements, she opened the communication channel.

  “Try to move as little as possible,” Del said. “Do not show them any weakness.”

  “No, it’s okay,” Vee said. “They’re going to believe she’s also affected by the plague. Perhaps it’s even better.”

  “Okay, okay, now both of you shut up.” Thea waved a hand. “Vee, if you have something to say, write it on the screen. Del, I don’t want them to see you for now. So ... do we stick with the epidemic story?”

  To prepare her, Vee had shown her a summary of Law’s notes regarding his time spent on The Pacific, focusing on the disease pathology. Del wasn’t sure how much Thea remembered, still groggy after the stasis, but the dates were too close for the crew to be completely cured. It was possible some of them still carried the virus in latent state. Maybe it wasn’t a lie after all.

  “It’s the only excuse we could come up with to keep them away,” Vee said.

  Obviously, it hadn’t worked.

  Thea nodded and ruffled her hair. “Okay, then it won’t look strange if my answers are confusing.”

  “Vee, can we have lights with a green hue?” Del asked.

  “Right away.”

  The light’s intensity changed inside the cabin so Thea looked really sick or at least having not been sleeping for days. With a soft hum, a fan started to send waves of warm air in their direction. Within minutes, Thea would be covered in a thin layer of sweat.

  Del moved into a corner where he could see the console and Thea could still see him.

  “Establishing the connection,” Vee said.

  An unshaven man stared at Thea with bloodshot eyes. A second man, thickset and with a rough figure, stood by his shoulder, frowning at the camera. In the background, flashes coming from the control panels illuminated the walls.

  “Captain Rodoff?” Thea asked.

  The bearded man nodded and hesitated. “Captain...?” He opened a hand
, inviting her to introduce herself.

  “Althea Sun,” Thea said. “Our captain isn’t currently available. What do you want?”

  Without lying, she’d let Rodoff guess whether the supposed captain was ill, had succumbed to the disease or was just busy elsewhere.

  Del modeled his face into an encouraging smile.

  Rodoff seemed undecided how to address the issue.

  “Can you hurry?” Thea let out an annoyed sigh. “If you can’t help, they need me elsewhere.”

  “No, wait ... when you detected us, we thought you were a courier ship sent to meet us.”

  Del tilted his head, confused. It could be true. But a courier ship able to detect ships in stealth mode meant a highly classified operation. What had they gotten themselves into?

  Vee wrote in the corner of the screen:

  We don’t officially have the necessary technology.

  “It must be a mistake,” Thea said. “We wouldn’t have known you were there if you hadn’t contacted us. We scan the space in search of a ship, any ship, to help our sick people. Unfortunately, the asteroid field doesn’t seem to be inhabited and we’re wasting a lot of time finding our way through it.”

  “We have some of the requested medicine,” Rodoff said. “We could dispense with a reasonable amount, on one condition ... you take a message from us to the living space.”

  A trick to make the exchange more credible? Del rocked in place. The captain looked utterly tired and his companion stressed. What happening on the Uliake? Unlikely they’d ever know.

  Thea dug her teeth into her lower lip, feigning indecision. “If it’s an urgent matter, don’t count on us. We can’t jump because the patients in serious condition can’t resist jumping. At this rate—” she cast a look back at something that wasn’t there, “—we’ll be lucky if we make it out of the field.”

  Perfect. Not only had she explained why they couldn’t jump when in reality they didn’t have a pilot, but she’d made it appear they were too busy with the epidemic to bother with a passing ship. Del was impressed by her ability to lie and improvise, but also a little worried.

  Movement detected near the ship.

  “We’ll calculate the shortest course for you,” Rodoff said, “since we’ve been there.”

  “Thanks, we appreciate it.”

  “We’ll send a shuttle with the medicine and the message we want to you to deliver. It’s encrypted and, anyway, it would be of no use to you. Just broadcast it in the system when you get near one.”

  “Okay, we can do that.”

  Rodoff checked the screens in front of him. “Estimated time of contact: thirty minutes. We’ll continue our course, and the shuttle will catch up with us.”

  Lies, they sent it already!

  “Farewell.” Thea cut the connection and leaned back in her chair. “Who wants to bet there won’t be only drugs in the shuttle?” she muttered, frowning.

  Her forehead glistened with sweat.

  “Vee, turn off the heat,” Del said.

  Thea wiped her forehead with the sleeve. “What are our options?”

  “Assuming they don’t want anyone to know they’ve been here, only two possible scenarios come to mind,” Vee said. “One: they send the shuttle to blow us up. Two: the shuttle brings armed personnel to ... hmm, not sure what to do. Kill us? It’s easier to blow us up.”

  “Then what do we do, run?” Thea asked.

  “If we don’t wait for the shuttle, they’ll know we didn’t fall for it.”

  “Can we send our shuttle to stop it? You can control it remotely.”

  Unfortunately, they only had one shuttle left, and risking it would have put the crew in too great a danger if something happened to The Squirrel.

  “If we attack the shuttle,” Vee said, “whether we destroy it or not, it will alert the ship and they’ll be forced to attack. Even if it would cause us severe damage, their shuttle doesn’t have weapons powerful enough to take us out of the game. The ship though ... I’m afraid we won’t survive a direct hit.”

  “So our only option is to sit and wait to see if we explode?” Thea let her head fall into her hands. “Wonderful!”

  “I still think—”Del said.

  “I know, I know,” Vee said, “we should wake Law.”

  “It sounds like a good idea.” Thea’s face brightened.

  Del bowed his head slightly in gratitude for her support. He tended to agree with Vee. Thea was becoming his favorite patient.

  “There’s no time to awaken him from stasis and devise a plan before the shuttle gets to us,” Vee said. “We must fend for ourselves.”

  Thea motioned for Del to approach her and opened her arms.

  “The good news is I don’t think they intend to blow us up,” Vee said while Del lifted Thea from the chair and carried her down the stairs. “According to the latest galactic treaties on piracy, the disappearance of a spaceship causes more suspicions than if found damaged with the crew dead. It’s assumed we registered a flight plan upon our departure and we’re expected somewhere. If we’re late to appear at the destination, someone will start asking questions. And because of the epidemic, we probably flooded the space with requests for help. It’s impossible to lose our track, or so they think. It’s too big a risk. They’d be looking for us at one point, and they’ll start by determining what other ships we crossed paths with. Because crossing asteroid fields are recorded, to study their dynamics, they are going to find them eventually. And then some uncomfortable questions will follow, such as why they didn’t report the incident and why they didn’t help.

  The satisfaction in Vee’s voice was palpable, but Thea cut her enthusiasm as soon as she settled in her chair. “That would happen in an alternate universe in which we registered a flight plan and we have an epidemic on board. In reality, they can do whatever they want and no one will ever find us.”

  “Eh, the absent members of the crew will look for us, only it will take some time until they’re able to do it ... for now, we have other problems to deal with. My calculations suggest there are at least two people on the shuttle sent to exterminate us.”

  “Uh, I do not like the odds,” Del said.

  “Perfect! So we sit here and wait for them to kill us? Let’s wake up Eradiez,” Thea told Del and led her chair towards the cabin in which the stasis capsules were stored. “With him, we at least have a chance.”

  “Too late,” Vee said with regret. “The shuttle is approaching.”

  “Can we find something in the medbay to wake him faster?” Thea asked Del.

  “Possibly ... but the side effects are often severe. I would not recommend—”

  “Hey!” Vee shouted. “Did you hear me? There. Is. No. More. Time! Your solutions aren’t viable, and I have to protect my crew.”

  “And what do you suggest?” Thea snapped.

  “You’re handling it yourselves—”

  “She’s lost it,” Thea said in a moderate tone.

  “—with my help, of course.”

  “Vee, Thea cannot fight armed men, and I cannot hurt people,” Del said, going ahead to open the doors for Thea.

  “Right, she can’t,” Vee said. “Therefore, we switch to zero g. Eradiez taught her how to fight in zero g.”

  “I practiced defense more than attack,” Thea muttered.

  “It’s enough to defend yourself. The attack will allow Del to interfere.”

  “I cannot—” Del protested.

  “All you have to do is immobilize them, not hurt them.”

  “Do we get some weapons for this?” Thea sighed but didn’t stop.

  “Del can’t use weapons, and you haven’t completed Eradiez’s weapon training yet. I’d rather not give you the opportunity to hurt yourself. You’ll find in the medbay plenty of doses of tranquilizers that you can both use.”

  Del changed course towards the medbay. Vee’s plan had a chance to work. If Thea was attacked, his programming would allow him to use tranquilizers to settle the conflic
t. Maybe.

  “I expect them to bring protective suits because of the epidemic and unlikely to wear traction boots,” Vee said. “They’ll be taken by surprise by zero g, and the suits are relatively easy to puncture with our doses if you use long needles. Ready?”

  Del had just reached to open a drawer in search of the doses. He barely had time to start the magnetic fields in his feet before rising from the ground. With slower reflexes, Thea easily floated out of her chair. She let out a startled gasp but didn’t protest. She moved faster without traction boots.

  “They’re here,” Vee said. “They’re trying to connect to the airlock. If I stop them, they’ll know we suspect something, and I fear they came prepared to pass through the door.”

  Thea took a handful of doses from Del, pocketed them, and made her way out, floating. He followed her out on the floor.

  4

  Del pressed his body to the ceiling, hidden in a curve of the corridor. It had been Vee’s idea. She had also dimmed the lights not to have his presence revealed by the glittering of his metal parts, which showed how much she controlled the ship. Del congratulated himself for not crossing her from the start. With the whole crew in stasis, she could have cut his access to power and then who knew what would have happened. In any case, nothing good for him.

  The wait ended when the airlock door opened and two men in thin suits floated inside. Their few imbalanced moves trying to find their pace confirmed they weren’t accustomed to zero g and had come unprepared. The tone of their voices sounded like swearing, but Del was too far away to make out the meaning of words. He clearly saw the weapons, though. Zero g gave Thea an advantage, as she had found a hiding place among the things in the hold, but not big enough to put her out of danger. Therefore, they had agreed she wouldn’t interfere unless one of the intruders remained isolated.

  Vee’s plan presented many holes Del didn’t know how to solve, but they hadn’t had time to devise a more detailed one. After people passed him and moved away down the corridor, Del marched on all fours, hanging upside down, and trying to make as little noise as possible. The hold stretched dark and menacing ahead of them, and when one of the men tried to access the console on Merrick’s workbench, he received an error message. Vee had begun her diversion.