Vall's Will (13 page)

Chapter Twenty

Apology

Plymon found her
on the observation deck. She was sprawled on one of the sofas, but she wasn’t
asleep. A large mug of something was balanced on her abdomen, one arm tucked
behind her head, as she stared at the passing universe.

It was late, and
about the end of their shift. Will had left the bridge earlier, claiming she
needed to take a break. After she had been gone longer than usual, Plymon went
looking for her, to make certain she was doing all right.

She hadn’t been
in her cabin when he’d stopped there. Fortunately, it was a small enough ship.
There weren’t many places she could be.

He paused to
stare at her, lying there in her baggy uniform, her new skin no longer baby
pink fresh. Instead, it had already taken on a pale sheen. By the time she was
able to erect her personal shield, it would be back to its tough and viable
natural state.

She didn’t
glance over to see who had entered the room, but he knew she was aware someone
had joined her. Plymon debated whether to approach her directly, or to go
around until he was in her line of sight, when she spoke up.

“Are you
here to see me or to watch the view?”

“How did
you know it was me?”

“Your knee
still pops on occasion. Does it continue to bother you?”

“Not
really.”

Will sighed
loudly, then took a sip of her drink, returning the mug to her belly. Clasping
his hands behind his back, Plymon strolled down the brief incline to the next
level of seats before turning to face her.

“How are
you feeling?”

Her eyes
flickered over to him, her face remaining expressionless. “Doing better.
Killjorn says my hair should start growing out soon.”

He had to be
careful. Careful about his actions as well as his words. This would be his only
chance to win Will back, and he couldn’t make any mistakes.

With Vall no
longer around, she was his again for the taking, but only if she allowed him.
And if there was one thing that got Will’s attention, as well as her total
respect, it was the candid truth.

He perched
himself on top of a seat back and clasped his hands in his lap. “We need
to talk.”

“About?”

“I need to
apologize.”

“For being a
complete crallik hole?”

“Yes.”

She stared at
him in surprised silence for a few moments. “What’s wrong, Plymon? Don’t
tell me you’re here because you’re needing a quick fekk.”

Her sarcasm
stung. But what hurt worse was the fact that she wasn’t totally incorrect.
Since she’d left his bed, he had spent every night alone. At first, he had
thought about taking another crew member as his fekk mate, but he had yet to
commit himself. At first, he tried to convince himself he wasn’t going to do it
out of anger. Yet, once the anger burned off, he discovered he honestly missed
her.

Plymon shook his
head. “I’ve had time to think about our relationship.”

“We have no
relationship. Not anymore.”

He felt a
tremendous sinking feeling go from the center of his chest to the pit of his
stomach. Breathing became harder, but he forced himself to remain calm.
Clear-headed.

“I meant
our working relationship. Captain, I don’t want a transfer. I wish to remain on
the
Trinity.
”

It hadn’t taken
him long to realize a transfer was the last thing he wanted or needed, when all
he truly wanted and needed was Willis Tayte.

She sat up.
Taking another sip of her drink, she sat the mug on her lap. He had her full
attention.

“I’ve had
time to think about my actions, and I know now that my reactions were those of
a jealous man.” He paused to see if she would comment. After a repeated
swallow from her mug, Will leaned forward.

“You
weren’t just jealous. You were possessive. Possessive of me and my captaincy.
You wanted my chair first, and me second. It’s been that way from the moment
you signed on, and it will always be that way for you.”

The words burned
in his gut. Until that moment, Plymon had no idea how intuitive she was, or how
acidic the naked truth could be.

“What can I
do to show you I’m not your enemy? I know we’ll never be able to reestablish
the close connection we once shared. At least tell me how I can prove myself to
you.”

“For
beginners? Never bring Vall into the conversation. Secondly, never touch me
again.”

Her words were
clipped and to the point. Initially, Plymon felt his anger rise at her
statements. Then his hope took a nose dive. Never touch her again?

He opened his
mouth to protest when a little voice in the back of his mind shushed him.
She’s
not over the guy. Give her time. She’ll come back to you eventually. When she
needs a good hard fekk, she’ll show up at your cabin, and you’ll accept her
without condemnation.

Realizing his
mouth was still open, he tried to recover his composure. “And my
transfer?”

Will didn’t
hesitate. “It will be some time before we reach base. Hopefully, in the
interim, you’ll have proven yourself to me again. I’ll let you know then.”

So, she was
giving him a second chance. Good. Although he had hoped she would say the
transfer was off, her answer was enough, and it was better than being told his
removal was a definite. He nodded and got to his feet, when Will continued.

“I know you
were jealous, Braill. I know you resented me being with Vall. But you have to
understand that you don’t own me. I’m not yours to order around. An agreement
to consensual fekking does not give one partner dominance over the other. You,
of all people, know that fekk mates can dissolve their partnership at any time,
for any reason. That’s the way it’s always been.”

“I know
that.”

She started to
say more when a loud, blaring wail startled them both. Will dropped her mug,
the contents spilling across the floor. Together, they bolted for the door to
get to the bridge as quickly as possible, as Granth’s voice announced
throughout the ship.

“Enemy ship
bearing down on us! Enemy ship firing! We are under attack!
We. Are. Under.
Attack!
”

Chapter
Twenty-One

Unknown

Plymon was ahead
of her by several steps, clearing the way as crew members rushed past them. She
was all right with that. It was the fact that her stamina was already drained
that worried her. She was pushing herself past her limits, when they had been
fragile to begin with.

She stumbled
before she reached the tube. Without thinking, the Sub-captain reached out and
snagged her arm, pulling her into the tube with him. Although she had told him
never to touch her again, Will dismissed this incident as necessary. Plymon
knew what she had meant by her earlier demand.

The claxon
continued to sound the alarm. The ship was programmed to automatically go into
defense mode if a vessel identified as belonging to an enemy or otherwise
unknown species came within a specific distance. Its shields deployed the
instant the other vessel fired.

The tube jerked
to a halt. At that exact moment, the
Trinity
jiggled as it shrugged off
a close detonation. Will felt Plymon’s hand at her back as he shoved her ahead
of him, onto the bridge. She barely had time to grab the back of her seat when
the ship reacted to another blow. Before she was aware of it, she was flipped
forward, head over heels. Her back struck the front of the chair, and only the
soft padding covering the seat prevented her from any major injuries. Will
grunted upon landing, her face screwed into a painful grimace. Crawling up into
the chair, she buckled herself in.

“Who’s
firing on us?” she demanded. The view screen was empty except for the
usual panorama.

“Unknown,
Captain,” Granth responded. “They refuse to acknowledge.”

“Keep
trying. Anyone know what are they using against us?”

“Kleshenite
missiles,” Plymon called from his station.

“Return
fire, Captain?” Dierk asked.

“Do we have
enough artillery to counter them?”

“Yes,
Captain!”

“Hold! And
turn us around so I can see who is fekking with us!”

Nimbly, the
Trinity
rotated until the screen was filled with the bright blue vision of the
enemy ship. The craft was massive, even with the distance separating them. Side
by side, the
Trinity
would have appeared as a miniscule dot against the
cerulean-colored hull.

“Granth,
who is that?”

“No idea,
Captain. It’s not registering.”

“How did
they manage to sneak up on us?” She gave Magnus a dark look.

“They
suddenly appeared out of hyperspace, Captain, and began attacking.”

Will hit the
communication button on the arm. “Balacon! They’re using kleshenite
missiles. How are the shields standing?”

“We’re at
eighty-nine percent. Those are powerful missiles, but they’re not being aimed
at our most vulnerable points.”

Will paused to
take in what the engineer had said, when Magnus called out. “They’re
firing again!”

An almost
luminous glow arched between the strange ship and the
Trinity.
The Nion
warship
rocked a second later.

“Balacon!”

“Eighty-two
percent, Captain!”

“Captain,
return fire?” Dierk repeated.

It only took her
a moment to reach a decision.

“No. Do not
fire back.”

Both Plymon and
Magnus cried out in protest. Holding up a hand, Will bowed her head to gather
her thoughts before explaining.

“Whoever
they are, they don’t intend to destroy us, or else they’d be targeting our
engines.”

“That’s
assuming they know where our engines are located,” the Sub-captain pointed
out. It made sense.

“Plymon, do
we have any details on the make of that vessel?”

“No, Captain.
Not without more data to study.”

“But
they’re using kleshenite, which probably means it’s also their source of
energy. Dierk, did we fully absorb that last blast?”

“Yes,
Captain.”

“Good. Take
it and reverse its polarity. I want one kleshenite negative blast aimed right
up their rear. Low power, wide dispersal. Enough to disable them but not
destroy them. I want them to open up and tell us why they’re attacking
us.”

“Yes,
Captain.”

“Fire when
ready.”

The greenish orb
erupted from their underbelly and spun directly at the strange ship. Within
seconds it encountered the enemy’s shield and slid through it as though it
didn’t exist. In the next instant, the orb curved downward and disappeared
behind the massive structure.

Will grinned.
One of these days she hoped to be able to see inside the bridge of an
adversary’s spacecraft when a Nion extended missile slipped past their
strongest defenses like a blade through water.

A brief flash of
light signaled the orb reaching its destination. The blue ship never wavered,
but Will knew something had happened.

Suddenly,
unexpectedly, a reddish glow was launched directly at them. Will barely had
time to yell for evasive action when Magnus took the
Trinity
into a ninety
degree tilt. Because of the Nion ship’s unique design and capabilities, the
vessel responded immediately, and the enemy missile shot harmlessly underneath
them before vanishing into space.

“Unknown
weapon, Captain!” Plymon answered her unasked question.

Will winced as
her body protested against the abuse she’d taken earlier. She would sport
bruises after this encounter, and Killjorn would ream her out for it. Magnus
returned them to their original position.

“Good
maneuver,” she praised the navigator. In nearly all cases of enemy fire,
she was confident in
Trinity’s
shields to negate the attacks. However,
when it came to an unknown enemy like this one, the primary procedure was to
try and avoid contact until the enemy’s strength could be determined.

Everyone stared
out the view screen, waiting for the strange craft’s next move. One minute
passed, followed by two.

“What I
wouldn’t give to know what they were thinking,” Magnus commented.

“My bet it
wouldn’t be in nice terms,” Will murmured. From the corner of her eye, she
noticed her communications officer reacting.

“Incoming
audio transmission, Captain.”

“Let’s hear
it.”

There was a
moment of soft static, followed by a low rumbling noise. Will ran her teeth
over her lips. A ship that big would emit a deep hum almost constantly.

“Attention
Nion warship. Turn over the Vall immediately, or face annihilation.”

The voice was
calm and mechanical as it filtered through the translator.

Will turned to
see Plymon staring at her, as were all the other crew members on the bridge. By
the looks on their faces, they had heard exactly what she had.

“Attention
unidentified warship. State your species, point of origin, and purpose for
attacking us. What is your reason for firing on us?”

“Nion
warship, captained by the female Willis Tayte, hand over the Vall immediately,
or face annihilation.”

Now they had
piqued her curiosity. Giving Granth the signal to momentarily silence the line,
she glanced again at her Sub-captain.

“Captained
by the female Willis Tayte?” she reiterated.

“They think
Vall is still aboard. They don’t know we handed him over to Captain
Alamet.”

Will motioned
for the communications officer to re-open communications.

“Unknown
warship, this is Captain Willis Tayte, of the Nion warship
Trinity of Hope.
We
are policing this area as representatives of the Coalition of Regents of the
Surro-Gambit galaxy. Identify yourself!”

“Nion
warship, hand over the Vall or face annihilation. You have seventy-three
uggerds
to comply.”

“Anybody
want to bet that’s not a long time?” Magnus commented under his breath,
but it was heard by all.

Will nearly
growled in frustration. “Listen up, you big blue monolith! We don’t take
threats lightly, and we don’t have Vall. So go ahead and try to annihilate us!
We’ll punch so many holes in your shields, you’ll leak starlight!”

All right. So it
wasn’t her most diplomatic response. But there was no way to know if more of
the same type of weaponed ships were on their way to join them, and she didn’t
have the time to wait around to find out.

They listened
for the ship’s reply as the seconds dragged by. Through the view screen, the
alien craft never moved. Neither was another barrage of weapons launched in
their direction. Will signaled for privacy.

“At some
point they knew we had Vall. Which means they must be in communication with the
Ben Objure.”

“Think the
Objurians brought these beings over to their side because of their
firepower?” Magnus questioned.

Plymon snorted.
“These creatures are definitely stronger and pack more of a punch than the
Objurians can, but they still can’t match one retaliatory class Nion
warship.”

Nodding, Will
added, “Apparently they thought they could, or else there would have been
more than one of them intercepting us by now. Well, at least we know why they
didn’t try to destroy us outright. They want Vall. Why?”

Granth waved a
hand at her as he re-opened the communication line.

“Your time
is up, Nion warship. Where is the Vall?”

“Go suck a
black hole. Captain Tayte out.” She waited for Granth to close the line,
then added, “Keep an ear open. Let me know if they say anything.”

“Want me to
tap their outgoing messages?”

“Especially
those. Plymon, how long has it been since we handed Vall over to the
Legion
?”

“Not quite
twenty-seven hours.”

“That’s
plenty of time for them to reach Regency Base, since they went into
hyperspace.”

“Barring
any problems, yes. They should have arrived by now.”

“Unknown
warship has sent out a message,” Granth announced. He turned a pale face
to Will. “Correction. They sent one message to one hundred twenty-one
designations.”

One hundred
twenty-one designations?
One hundred twenty-one ships?

“What does
it say?” she asked, although she dreaded the fact that she already knew
the answer.

“The
message contains one word. Fire.”