The Star Pirate's Folly (15 page)

“Absolutely, sir,” Robert626 said, hurrying to catch up.
“It’s right around the corner here. I’ll take your oath in the elevator.”

“Oath? What oath?” Hargrove demanded, whirling on the
smaller man and forcing him to stop again. “You never said one word about
that.”

Robert626 shrugged. “It’s more of a ritual, really. All for
one, one for all, that type of thing. It’s not a big deal, trust me. Just part
of joining the club.”

Hargrove glared. “I
don’t
trust you.”

People started to jostle them now as they passed, angry that
the two men forced the flow of traffic in the hallway to move around them.

“Come on, move it,” one of the officers flanking them said.

“If you could just wait until we’re in the elevator—”
Robert626 began, urging Hargrove forward.

“No, you’ll tell me about it here. I won’t have a choice
once we get in there.”

Robert626 seemed hesitant, but after a moment’s internal
deliberation he took on a stiff and formal tone. “The Volunteer Core Militia
regretfully rejects your application, sir. Good day.”

The recruiter shoved past Hargrove with surprising strength
and threaded his way through the crowd to the elevator. Stunned, Hargrove lost
sight of the man in the white outfit. That was his way out, his only path to Bee.

“Wait!” Hargrove shouted as he chased after Robert626,
heedless of the calls of the officers behind him.

***

Starhawk brought the remnants of his fleet in close, keeping
to the blind spots in the orbital guns’ coverage. They coasted in low planetary
orbit directly over Overlook City, the last population center in range of
bombardment—and the juiciest. Before long the noose would close in around him
and he’d be forced to fight or flee.

His flagship
Deep Fog
sandwiched itself between the
two carriers
Polyphemus
and
Bleachbone
for protection. Ten warships
filled out the fleet with moderate firepower—he’d sent the other ten to assist
Gruce, who was somehow still alive. The fool could have made it through the
atmosphere intact if he’d stayed aboard
Red Shade
and slowed her descent
instead of evacuating. Instead he let her burn into a steaming pile of slag.

After
Red Shade
went down Starhawk aborted the pincer
attack and brought his fleet back in close. Every one of his remaining ships
had its guns pointed at Overlook City. Two-Gut and his men on Surface were
breaking away from the wild grubs charging toward the city. Now it was
Starhawk’s turn to add to the chaos.

“Let’s knock on the door,” Starhawk said to his fleet.
“Focus fire on the southern edge of the dome.”

Dozens of cannons primed and launched a salvo of bombardment
shells specially designed for orbital attack. Without the Core Fleet at home
the station must have been hesitant to engage, but now they would be forced to
send ships after him—they couldn’t stand by and let the bombardment continue.
Starhawk would keep it going as long as he could. His men would need the
support.

“Fighter coverage,” he ordered.

The carriers
Polyphemus
and
Bleachbone
opened
their docking bays and released squadrons of spherical drone fighters. Hundreds
of them swarmed into defensive formations between Starhawk’s fleet and the
orbital station. When the hangman came for him he’d be ready.

***

Hargrove caught sight of the stark white jumpsuit Robert626
wore and lunged forward, grabbing the man by his shoulder. He lost his grip on
the slick material and the recruiter slipped a hand like iron around Hargrove’s
wrist, pulled him forward, and twisted his arm behind his back. So strong—

“Oh, it’s you,” Robert626 said, immediately releasing
Hargrove. “I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just quickly—tell me about this
oath.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but your application has been rejected.”

Hargrove felt the blood rise to his face. “Now, you listen
here!
Your
organization invited
me
, not the other way around.
You’re a recruiter, for stars’ sake! We had an agreement!”

Robert626 shook his head in apology. “It’s out of my hands,
sir.”

“I want to join your damn group and you’re not going to
stand in my way!” Hargrove boomed.

The recruiter beamed and stuck his hand out. “The Volunteer
Core Militia is happy to formally accept your application.”

That took the bluster out of him. Hargrove balked but took
the recruiter’s hand. “What—?”

Robert626 leaned in with a grin as he shook Hargrove’s hand.
“We always say no to new recruits the first three times. Helps to weed out the
ones who aren’t serious. Are you ready for the oath?”

“Fine. Yes. I’ve come this far.”

“Do you, Hargrove Levene, declare yourself a member of the
Volunteer Core Militia?”

“Yes.”

“Do you swear to protect the brothers and sisters of the
Volunteer Core Militia as they have sworn to protect each other?”

“I swear.”

“Welcome to the Volunteers, Mr. Levene.”

“You want slow movements—it’s easy to pull a muscle
thrashing around trying to get your balance. Know exactly what you want to do
before you do it,” Truly said through a speaker inside Bee’s helmet.

The proximity of his voice unnerved her still despite it
being their fifth nullroom session together in as many days. Bee couldn’t help but
feel like he said the words from just behind her ear. It made the hair on her
neck stick up all weird.

“Okay, here goes,” she said.

“Not too much force,” Truly reminded her.

Bee squatted against the wall above the door to the
nullroom, both boots planted square underneath her. Just stand and push off
with your feet, he said. Stand and push. Not too hard, she thought as she
looked up to gauge the distance to the other side. She straightened her knees
to stand and shoved off from the wall, immediately feeling the temporary
brain-freakout free fall still gave her.

“I said not too much…” Truly shook his head from his vantage
point on the ceiling.

She’d pushed off too hard, zooming toward the opposite wall
faster than she intended. She flung her arms out like Truly had told her to do
if she needed to stop and the nodes in her palms shot beams of energy toward
each wall. Her arms flexed from the strain as she slowed, stopped, and turned
to pull herself back toward her starting point.

“Well, you didn’t hit the wall this time,” Truly said.

“Yeah, I’m a real pro.” Bee closed her hand into a fist,
reached out to the wall, and exposed the node in her palm when she was ready to
move, tugging herself carefully forward with the green beam of energy.

“I’ve seen worse. You’re no natural, but put in the time to
practice and nobody can tell the difference. For less than a week in the
nullroom you’re doing alright.”

“Less than a week’s probably the most practice I’m ever
going to get,” she said. “We get to Optima tomorrow, right?”

“Yup.”

“And then you guys are off on your treasure hunt.”

“Which you’re not going to tell anyone about,” Truly said.
“Right?”

“The Captain already talked to me,” Bee said as she raised
her boots to the wall. “If anyone asks you’re on a routine salvage expedition.”

The nodes grabbed on and she dropped onto the wall in a
standing position. Moving in the suit was becoming much easier for her—she’d
learned in the time she and Truly practiced how the suit used natural,
intuitive motion commands to control the nodes. It was starting to feel like a
second skin.

“Yeah, well you didn’t talk to me yet. And don’t think
anyone trusts you just ‘cause you’ve been working everyone on board.”

Bee reeled from Truly’s combative tone. “What? Where did
that come from? I’m not—”

“Please. You’ve been pumping every person on this ship for
information since day one. You know too much for me to be comfortable.”

Truly descended from the ceiling and flipped himself to land
on the floor. He started dismantling his armor as he walked to his locker.

“Well no shit, of course I’m asking questions. I want to
learn from you guys,” she snapped, glaring at him from her perch on the wall.
“You’re the real thing. Privateers. That’s what I want to be.”

“Oh, I see. You think it’s that easy?” Truly laughed and
mocked her with a high-pitched voice. “I’ll just become a privateer, that
sounds great! This is no cakewalk,
Bee
. You can’t just sign up—and even
if you could we wouldn’t be bringing on some damn teenage girl.”

“You know what, Truly? Why don’t you go suck vacuum.”

“Don’t get all upset, it’s not personal. It’s my job to make
sure this doesn’t end up being our last trip out there. You’re a liability.
Just keep your mouth shut after we drop you off.”

“I’m not gonna say
jack
, okay?” Bee said. She walked
down the wall toward the floor. “Why would I do that?”

“There’s people who might come asking about us.”

“What does that mean?” She hopped from the wall to the
floor, wobbling as she found her balance.

“Captain’s not a popular man this far out. Back in the Core
he’s got lots of friends, but the rest of the system’s not too fond of
privateers. He’s got more than a few enemies on Optima and they don’t ask nice
when they’re looking for information.”

“Well that’s comforting.”

Truly closed his locker and walked past her. “Like I said,
just keep your mouth shut and you’ll be fine. No one’s going to know you came
in with us and you won’t be there for long. But if anyone asks…”

“I heard you,” Bee said as Truly left the nullroom.

***

The next morning Bee woke early, before the light cycle on
the ship was bright enough to be considered day. She wanted to get as much out
of her remaining time on the ship as possible. For breakfast she went to the
kitchen and filled a bowl with the bland nutrient paste the whole crew had been
eating for the past week.

Since Myra vented half the ship’s power cells there wasn’t
enough energy for any waste—including the extra resources it took to cook a
proper meal. Everyone ate nutrient rations instead of the fresh meat and produce
they’d brought from Surface. The paste was boring but it filled her stomach.

At one point in her life, Bee thought as she dragged her
spoon through the remnants of the wheat-colored goop, she would have killed for
the stuff. Even for just a mouthful. She scraped the bowl clean and tried to
imagine how it might have tasted to her then. She probably could have lasted a
week on the meal she just ate.

“You actually like that stuff?”

Myra’s disembodied voice startled Bee and she dropped the
spoon into her bowl with a clatter.

“Myra! You’re back.”

“Yes, finally. But I’m a shadow of my former self,” she
griped. “Captain Overreaction stripped me down to nothing—I’m barely a ghost
now. Except I can’t even turn the lights on and off.”

Bee waggled her bowl as she rose from the table to put away
her dishes. “Well, you did force everyone to eat
this
all week.”

“A necessary evil. I was trying to stop you all from getting
killed. It’s in my core protocols to preserve life.”

“That doesn’t make sense. I mean, what if we needed all that
power for something? Weren’t you putting us in danger?” Bee went back to the
dining room and took a seat to hang around with Myra until someone else woke
up. Maybe she could talk Truly into one last training session.

“I ran millions of different scenarios and my minor sabotage
introduced the least amount of risk for the desired outcome.”

“And what outcome was that?” Bee asked.

“Making you all eat nutrition paste.”

Bee giggled, and was about to press the point when Captain
Anson walked into the dining room, interrupting their conversation.

“Morning, Captain,” Bee said.

He grunted in reply and went into the kitchen without
otherwise acknowledging her presence. Bee hadn’t seen the Captain since the
meeting on the bridge days ago—he’d locked himself in his quarters to work on
fixing Myra and hadn’t left since.

“You might want to avoid him for now,” Myra whispered to
her.

“Is he mad?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have done what I did,” she said, this
time with her good humor replaced by humility. “He trusted me. I mean, he still
trusts me, but maybe I would have been better off—no, never mind.”

“Better off what?” Bee spoke in a whisper like Myra.

“Your room?” asked Myra.

Bee nodded and slipped out of her seat. She wasn’t sure what
to make of Myra—she thought of Silver saying AIs like her were illegal. Beyond
a shadow of a doubt Bee knew she didn’t want to get on the Captain’s bad side.
But a private conversation wasn’t against the rules. She’d talk to Myra, but
reminded herself as she entered her room to be cautious.

“So what were you saying?” Bee asked. She took a seat on the
bed.

“I’m just not sure I did the right thing. The Captain is
still planning to go out there and now he’s angry with me. And I’m
useless
.
Can’t do anything myself anymore.”

Bee narrowed her eyes. “And now what are you saying?”

Myra took a moment. “If I asked you to—”

“Nope!” Bee said as she stood. “No way. Whatever it is you
want, I’m not getting involved.”

“You don’t even know what I’m asking.”

“I don’t trust you,” Bee blurted. “Sorry.”

Myra sighed. “No, I understand. But I just wanted to ask you
to consider coming with us instead of going back to Surface.”

“What? Didn’t you just say everyone was probably going to
get killed going out there?”

“Bee, you’re not ready for what you want to do. I ran some
scenarios for you too—you’ve actually got a better shot staying alive if you
come with us.”

“I’m going back,” Bee insisted. “I’ve been waiting my whole
life to find him, I’m not about to run away now. Besides, the Captain, Truly,
and
Silver all want me gone as soon as possible. They wouldn’t go for it.”

“Just think about it,” Myra said.

“I’m going back,” she repeated, but Myra wasn’t there.