Girl From Above #3: Trapped (10 page)

J
ames listened
as I sat on the bunk and recalled the events at the club, his swift fingers tapping away on his datapad. His tone had been sharp and direct. His body’s external clues indicated concern and fear. Fear for me, perhaps.

I neglected to mention Caleb’s kiss and what it had done to me. Or rather, what it hadn’t done. The kiss, as awkward as it had been, had plunged me into a beautiful silence where the only thing that had mattered, the only data I had cared for, was him. He’d smelled of engine oil and the crew’s lavender soap. His lips had been tantalizingly soft and curiously gentle, especially for a man so hardened by life. I’d wanted more. I’d wanted to bury myself in his data and let that moment become my world. Inside that kiss, I’d felt complete and entirely like myself. No errors. No faults. No invading memories. I’d known without any doubt what I’d wanted: him. I wanted his touch on my skin. I wanted to be close to him, as close as when he’d held me in his arms to keep me warm, but I wanted this to be more than necessity. It would be pleasure, and it would be new and all mine.

The walls of the cabin vibrated as
Starscream’s
engines thundered louder. We had clearance, which had to be a good thing. We’d been on Lyra for too long. Our enemies were closing in.

“How do you feel?” James asked, glancing up only to bury his nose back into the datapad just as quickly.

“Better. I had a distraction, but I’m continuing to experience errors.”

“You mentioned one critical error?”

“Yes.” The error I feared the most. The only time it hadn’t stalked my thoughts was when Caleb had kissed me. It flickered now, an ever-present threat. “I cannot discern its exact meaning, but I know its buried deep inside my code, so deep I cannot find its source. Do you know what it refers to?”

“Critical error code three-fourteen. Yes, I know of it. I’ve been waiting for it.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a Chitec sub-process. Nothing to concern yourself with.”

Lie.
“You do not need to lie to protect me, James.”

He lifted his head and smiled a soft, unassuming smile. “I’m not.”

True.
But how was that possible? “I don’t understand.”

“And that’s why I have to do this.”

“Do what?”
He’s not protecting me. He’s hurting me.

I opened my mouth to question him, or thought I had, but my lips didn’t move. I sent the command again, but nothing happened. I tried to lift my hand. To blink, to breathe, to move … My body didn’t respond.
Wait … No.

“I have to do this, One. I’m sorry.” He stood, set the datapad down on the chair, and rested his hands on my shoulders, moving as close to me as Caleb had been when he’d kissed me. “She’s in there. I have to let her out.”

He eased my body back and laid me down on the bunk, and then he sat beside me like a concerned visitor at the bedside of a sick relative. Only he wasn’t here to help me. He was killing me.

Why…? How was this possible? I have to move. I can’t let this happen.
The commands bounced back. My attempts to break free resulted in little more than echoes in an empty shell.

“It won’t take long. You should start losing sensation first. Everything physical will be pushed aside to make way for the metaphysical. I’m shutting you down in the most humane way possible.”

You’re killing me!

“It was a pleasure to have met you. Really, it was. I don’t want you thinking I didn’t enjoy our time together, I did, but Haley deserves more, and I can bring her back, but not with you in residence, One. The critical error code was the key. I’ve been looking for it. You gave it to me, so I know you understand, don’t you? She’s real and you’re manufactured. Her life will always be worth more than yours.”

No! No …
Had he planned this from the start? Was anything he’d told me real? Had he genuinely helped me in Chitec, or had it always been about bringing Haley back? I demanded he tell me, but my lips didn’t move. I threatened and pleaded, but my body shut down around me, trapping me in synthetic blood and flesh—a prisoner in my own code.

“She really was wonderful. It’s a shame, in a way, that you’ll never meet her.”

The data slowed until I couldn’t feel my legs, arms, chest. Inputs failed. My processes died, one after another, and silence pushed forward.
A terrible blackness, endless and starless. Stars are wishes and wishes are dreams. I have dreams too. Do they mean nothing?
I thought of Caleb and his awkward kiss, his attempt to save me, and I wished I’d had more time.

“The captain knows you’re unstable. I told him you were dying. He’ll leave us at the next dock, and I’ll reconfigure you when we’re safe.” James settled himself in the chair and smiled. “Thank you, One, for keeping her safe, but it’s her time now. You understand. I know you do. It’s the right thing.”

I clung to the last fragments of me. I liked whiskey. Caleb had introduced me to it on Ganymede. I liked the heat of it as it burned all the way down. And warm showers. I enjoyed the water on my skin. I liked bubbles, and … Caleb. I liked the feel of his lips on mine.

The black rushed in and swallowed me down.

Silence.

Count the stars, One.

There weren’t any.

“
C
aptain
, there’s a problem—”

“Doctor, right now I’m dealing with the kinda problem that could involve imminent death. Whatever it is, it can wait.” I cut the internal comms. The last thing I needed was Lloyd bitching about the turbulence.

Starscream
fought me as I lifted her away from the dock. She was always a stubborn bitch at low altitude but had decided to choose this moment to drag her ass.

“Rotating to compensate,” Bren announced. “Hold her steady.” He didn’t sound as scared as I knew he was. Commanders rarely did.

He controlled the smaller adjustments in tilt while I balanced
Starscream’s
overclocked engines against her ungainly controls. She was never meant for poise. She could pull a space station, but delicate, she was not.

“Where’s the Cande ship?” I didn’t look—couldn’t look at him as I flicked my attention between the flightdash and the obs window. With her nose tilted up, she gave me a fine view of Lyra’s dazzling lights, and I prayed a twitch wouldn’t send us plowing nose first into the packed strips. Sweat dripped down my cheek and my heart hammered hard.

“Five hundred and holding. They’re backing off.”

Starscream’s
thrusters coughed and the ship veered to port.

“Cale! Impact in three, two—”

Proximity alarms squealed.

“I got her.” Holy shit, I wasn’t a good enough pilot for this. Pulling back on the column, I rolled
Starscream
to starboard and caught a glimpse of the ship we’d almost hit: a luxury liner. “I bet that woke ‘em up.”

Had the external comms been on, I could guarantee I’d be hearing all kinds of colorful insults aimed at my direction.

“Steady, take her five degrees aft and ascend to five hundred.”

“You sure?” I knew it was tight above us and couldn’t spare the concentration to look myself.

“Just do it.”

I might not like my brother, but I trusted his skills, so I followed his commands, lifting
Starscream
into the stream of ships parked in a holding pattern. They were held there by the port authority’s auto-piloting systems, of which we weren’t part of.

“Cande ship inbound.”

“Shit. Can’t they wait until we’re out of the domes?” Flying in low atmo was difficult enough at the best of times. Flying manually in low atmo, in a crowded airspace, inside environmental domes was fucking insane.

“They’re hailing us.”

“Fuck ‘em.”

“Caleb-Joe, there are thousands of people on that dock. If us or the Candes collide with another ship, it’s not just us who’ll suffer. This is reckless, even for you. For safety reasons, this has to stop.”

“They started it.” I knew the risks, but I had
Starscream
where I wanted her.

“You killed their sister.”

“This is not the fucking time, Bren, and it was an accident. I liked Ade. More than I like you.” Squinting through the obs window, I could just make out a route through the traffic. “Right there. You see it? Past the liner. Can we make it through?”

Bren checked his screen. “No, it’s too tight.”

“Perfect.” I eased
Starscream
forward and caught her as she tried to twitch free.

“I just said no.”

“No, you just said the Candes will think twice.”
Starscream
bucked, lifting her rear. The ship-filled sky tilted. “Whoa, girl.” I wrestled her level with a sigh. “You ever tried riding an unbroken horse?”

“No.” He growled the word between his teeth. “I can’t remember the last time I saw a horse. Don’t try and compare this to riding a horse. I don’t want to hear it. Just tell me you have the ship under control.”

I smiled. “Mostly, but she kicks.” The engines grumbled, running hot, overclocked without enough airflow. She’d burn out if we didn’t get moving. At least with my hands on the controls, Bren couldn’t see how they were shaking. “Candes?”

“Closing.”

“They’ll struggle to get that harrier through.”

“This is suicide.”

“Have faith in your little brother.”

“Faith?” He swallowed so hard I heard it. “Remember the time you tried to fly a shuttle under the Capilano suspension bridge?”

I couldn’t help the smile. “Tried? I made it.”

His fingers flexed on the flight chair. “Yeah, then took out half the forest.”

“Nobody died.”

Bren laughed. “Fleet had to bail you out.”

“Fleet busted my balls and grounded me for six months.”

“Then fast-tracked you through pilot training.”

“See, good things sometimes come to total fuck-ups.”

“I’ll be happy with living through the next five minutes.”

A quiet fell as we focused on getting from one second to the next. I wove
Starscream
in-between the stacks of ships. She
shook at the seams and bitched through the control columns, but she held good. Fran would’ve been proud.

“We have a cluster coming up. Readouts say it’s too tight. We should get One up here. We could use her keen eyes.”

“She’s not firing on all processors.” Which kind of made her more like me than I cared to admit, but I couldn’t rely on her to fly us straight. She was in the right place. Doctor Lloyd would fix her up. “Tarik did a number on her, but she gave as good as she got. I don’t ever want to get on her bad side. She scares the crap out of me.”
For different reasons now.

I focused on the proximity sensors, adjusting every few seconds, and blinked the sweat out of my eyes.

“Three degrees aft,” Bren advised. “She’s quite something.”

After correcting,
Starscream
inched through a gap she shouldn’t have fit through. “That she is. Also, she tastes like cherries.”

“What?”

“You heard me.” I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the readouts to check my brother’s expression, not that I cared what he thought.

“She tried to kill you not so long ago.”

“I seem to have that effect on women.” Ships ahead of us parted, catching on that we were coming through whether they got out of the way or not. “Candes?”

“Two hundred behind, sitting right on our stern.”

The series of dome locks blinked above. Our next challenge was to muscle our way to the front of the line without the port authority blocking us. I was gambling on the likelihood that they’d prefer we were out of their airspace than pick a fight with us inside their domes.

“I’ll bite. How do you know what she tastes like?”

“How do you normally know what a woman tastes like? I kissed her.”

“Why?”

“She was about to flake out on me. I had to do something to distract her. Figured if I could give her something else to focus on, it would clear her head. And I was curious.”

He hissed what sounded like a short, sharp laugh through his teeth. “I thought you’d sworn off curiosity?”

“Yeah, well, people change.”

He chewed on that for a few moments, his hands working over the flightdash. “I didn’t think you were one of them.”

“Neither did I.”

“Looks like they’re clearing a path …” Bren checked his screen again. “Candes are still close.”

“They’re fucking with us, trying to crowd us. It’s a scare tactic.”

“I got a ship on screen that’s breaking formation below and climbing fast. She’s carving through traffic fast enough to stir up one nasty wake.”

“Cande?”

He stared hard at his screen. “Pull up.”

“Fuck no.”

“Pull up, Cale. It’s moving too fast. You’ll hit. Pull up.”

“No way. They’ll know we’re here. If I stop now, the Candes will be on us. I’m not stopping.”

“Then speed the fuck up and do it now!”

With the traffic dispersed from our route, I rammed
Starscream’s
engines hard. The momentum slammed us into our seats. My tug dropped her nose and surged forward.

“Candes pulling back!”

The bridge shook so damn hard I struggled to focus on the instruments, but I did get a look at the top-down profile of the ship, which was coming at us like a damn rocket. “Shit. That’s a fleet raptor.”

“It’s back-reeling. Goddammit, I’ve never seen a warbird reel back like that. Intercept in nine, eight, seven—Stop, Caleb. They aren’t going to—Four, three—”

“They won’t risk the warbird.”

“Brace!”

I hissed in a breath. The warbird loomed too close in our obs window.
Starscream
skimmed the bird and hit somewhere in the stern. Alarms exploded across the dash.
Starscream
rolled stern over bow, her rear lifting too high. We plowed forward, ass up. I prayed there was nothing above us, locked my boots against the dash, and pulled back on the control columns. We were going over.

“Counter the tilt!” I couldn’t see if Bren was complying.
Starscream
pulled on my grip, fighting to snap out of my control. My arms trembled and my muscles burned. “I’m losing her, Bren.”

He had hold of the co-pilot controls and was pulling back same as me. With the nose rolled down, Lyra glistened in the obs window. If we lost control, there’d be nothing left of
Starscream
, or any ship we might hit on the way down, or the dock.

He released a hand and flicked various engine control switches. The ship’s engines died. “Initiating emergency after burn!”

“Fuck, Bren!”

It didn’t matter. We’d be dead in the next few seconds.
Starscream
had to hit something.

The ship’s engines roared back to life, this time rotating hard, away from the planet’s surface.
Starscream
lurched. The g-force grabbed hold of my consciousness and tried to rip it away. And then, just like that, it was over. We leveled out, facing the ugly ass of a pelican class goods carrier, and my vision sharpened.

I blinked, afraid to move, then plucked my trembling hands from the control column and sank them into my hair. “How the fuck are we alive?”

Bren, whiter than a fleet uniform, stared at me wide-eyed. “We just pulled off a reel back in a tugship.”

“That kinda shit is why you’re a commander.” I could’ve hugged him. “Fuckin’ A, brother.” Nervous energy shot me from my seat. I jabbed the internal comms. “You okay back there, Doc?”

“Yes, Captain. Should I have been concerned?”

Bren laughed.

“No,” I replied. “We have it all under control.”

I opened a comms channel so Bren could hear whatever the warbird’s captain had to say. “Bren, turn us about. I want to get a look at the asshole ship that nearly killed us.”

He did as asked, and
Starscream
turned, showing us the path of scattered ships in our wake, with the warbird sitting between us and the Candes, wings spread, looking every part the fleet cocksucker. But the ship wasn’t fleet. A new insignia had been painted over fleet’s faded colors.

“That mark, right there.” Bren hesitated. “I’ve seen it before.”

Sure he had. I had the same mark tattooed low on my back: a nine-tailed fox. My mind raced through likely scenarios and explanations, none of them good. The brand might not mean anything. A fluke, coincidence … bad luck.

“This is Captain Shepperd of the
Starscream Independent
six-zero-six hailing the warbird that nearly wiped me and my crew out.” Adrenalin fizzled through my veins. That bastard was lucky we weren’t face to face, or I’d set One on him. “Come in, raptor class designation nine-nine-one and explain what the fuck you were thinking.”

“Captain Shepperd.”

No.
It couldn’t be.

“This is Francesca Franco of raptor nine-nine-one.
Me alegro de verte
. Nice to see you again, Captain.”

F
ran
.

How. In. The. Fuck?

“I er …” Words—I had none. A glance at Bren didn’t help. He looked as though he was about to throw up.

Of course there was only one pilot good enough to fly a warbird manually in low atmo, one that could pull off a reel back and ascent without blacking out her entire crew. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been standing on Asgard soil, hands tied, throwing insults my way. Now she was piloting an ex-fleet warbird in Lyra airspace with a nine-tailed-fox insignia on her hull.

“Captain?” Her smooth, ever-sassy voice came over the comms, restrained laughter in her tone. She was loving this and milking every fucking second.

I needed a witty comeback. Something.
I got nothing.
“Yeah?”

“You need to know three things, Shepperd.
Uno:
the Candes have recruited every low-life, bottom-feeding piece of scum in their cause to locate you, including some old friends of yours from Asgard.”

The foxes. Holy shit. Her insignia. That meant she was with them, commanding them. Questions barreled through my head, driven by an increasing sense of panic. I hated being fucking hemmed in, and right now, I was surrounded. All I needed was for fleet and Chen Hung to turn up, and the gang would all be here.

“
Dos:
fleet are withdrawing all forces to the original system,” she continued. “
Tres:
I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. I am not your enemy. I never was.”

Bren jabbed the mute button. “We’re getting clearance codes from the port authority. I don’t know how, but we have immediate clearance for the locks.”

The Nine—it had to be. Creet had smoothed the path ahead, and just in time too.

“Do it.” I unmuted the comms to Fran and gripped the back of my flight chair while carefully considering my next words. “You’re just gonna let us fly right on outta here?”

“No choice,” she replied. “The impact damaged my arsenal guidance. Firing unguided in Lyra airspace would be suicidal.”

It was plausible, or she could be lying to protect us.

Starscream’s
engines rumbled as Bren eased the ship away from the warbird. “You with the Candes, Fran?”

“Girl’s gotta fight to survive.”

They’d hired her and whatever foxes she’d tamed while on Asgard, thinking she’d want me dead just as much as they did. As far as they knew, I
had
left her on Asgard to die, but she hadn’t died. Fuck, no. Francisca had taken the foxes by the balls and seized an opportunity when the Candes went looking for my enemies. Already an expert at playing both sides, but pirates and foxes? Fuck, she had to be more insane than me.