Gate Quest (Star Kingdom Book 5) Read online

  Gate Quest

  Star Kingdom, Book 5

  Lindsay Buroker

  Copyright © 2019 by Lindsay Buroker

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you, good reader, for continuing on with my Star Kingdom series. I’m having fun writing these characters, and I hope you are enjoying spending time with them. Many thanks, also, to my editor, Shelley Holloway, and my beta readers: Rue Silver, Cindy Wilkinson, and Sarah Engelke.

  1

  Qin pushed against the floor, her genetically engineered muscles straining, but the metal netting didn’t budge. She had a feeling she was wrapped up in one of the ridiculously strong alloys used to build space elevators. Worse, the net seemed to have a computer intelligence that knew precisely where and when to tighten to restrict her movements.

  It had taken a half hour of panting and flexing to wiggle her arms around so she could press her palms against the sticky, stained metal floor. But all that effort was for naught. She couldn’t push her cheek more than an inch off the floor, much less work her body free.

  “What’s the matter, Three?” one of her two captors caroled. “Not as strong as you thought?”

  “Maybe she hasn’t kept up with her training, and her muscles have gone mushy,” the other said.

  “Mushy? I think you mean they could have atrophied.” Qin doubted the goons had ever opened a book or knew what the word meant. “And they haven’t. Why don’t you let me go, and I’ll demonstrate how effective they are?”

  “Nah, we like looking at them through that net. Kind of sexy.”

  “Don’t talk to those idiots,” Bonita said—she was on the floor on the other side of a bed, under an identical net. Their captors had dragged them into a space-station hostel that rented rooms by the hour and, judging by the grime and the rumpled comforter, didn’t clean them between uses. Or at all. “Associating with them might make you dumber.”

  “Nobody asked you, Granny.” One man prowled toward Bonita, his rifle in hand, his body protected by combat armor.

  Not that their captors had needed armor. Qin, her stomach growling and whining pitifully, had allowed herself to walk right into that back-alley trap. She’d known there were people looking for them, and she’d still let herself be caught. She was ashamed and felt awful since Bonita was stuck here with her. There was nobody back on the Stellar Dragon to mount a rescue, not unless Viggo sent his cadre of robot vacuums out. They might improve the cleanliness of the room but would do nothing to free Qin and Bonita.

  “I don’t have children,” Bonita informed them.

  “What?”

  “No kids. Without kids, you can’t have grandkids and ergo can’t be a grandmother.”

  “Ergo?” a new voice asked. “Atrophied? Such words. I had no idea bounty hunters were so erudite.”

  “Suck yourself, Toes,” Bonita said.

  “That’s more what I’d expect.” The new speaker strolled in, also wearing combat armor, though his helmet was off and tucked under one arm, revealing tattoos of barbed-wire daggers on his cheeks, a studded dog collar around his muscular neck, and the two thin braids dangling from his otherwise trimmed gray beard. They swayed against his chest plate as he walked.

  Qin wanted to yank on them and drag him under one of his own nets.

  “So glad we’re not disappointing you,” Bonita said.

  While the men were focused on Bonita, Qin tried to think of a way she could barter for their freedom. Or at least Bonita’s freedom. These brutish representatives from the Drucker pirates didn’t want her captain. They only wanted Qin.

  “Toes—or do you prefer Johnny?” Qin had listened to Bonita banter with Johnny Twelve Toes on the way to Death Knell Station, but she hadn’t spoken to him herself.

  “I’ve learned to let six-foot-two, genetically engineered cat women call me whatever they like,” Johnny said.

  “Asshole has a nice ring,” Bonita said.

  “Now, you’re just being crude. Don’t disappoint me, Laser. I was quite delighted by you during our earlier talks.”

  “I’m so pleased.”

  “Johnny,” Qin said, “you’ve got us. Good job setting up that trap. I didn’t even smell your people coming—the armor, I guess. But you don’t need my captain. You just need me. You can drag me back to your ship in this net, but I’ll fight you the whole way. Unless you let her go. Then I’ll walk with you without trying to escape.”

  “Qin,” Bonita whispered harshly. “Don’t make that deal.”

  “There will be no deals, I’m afraid,” Johnny said. “I’m taking you both back to our warship. Captain Laser has attempted to double-cross the Drucker family. The brothers don’t allow such things to go unpunished.” He turned toward the other two men. “Bandit, Snaggle, I need you two to run an errand. I’ve just learned the dockmaster isn’t willing to let our shuttle fly away unless we pay a ridiculously hefty fine. That’s what we get for coming to a station run by enemies. Go to their office and flex a little muscle, will you? Let them know we’ll pay the standard fee but not a dollar more.”

  “You sure we got to do that so soon, boss? Couldn’t we have a little fun with the Qin first? She’s getting me excited with all that straining down there. And there’s that nice bed right there.”

  Qin gritted her teeth, flooded with memories of the times the pirates had come to her and her sisters and used them for sex. Letting them do so had been one of her duties since she’d been twelve and removed from the laboratory where she and her sisters had been raised. Bought and paid for by the Druckers. Maybe she’d been foolish to believe she could ever be anything but their slave for the rest of her life.

  “We’re not taking that net off her,” Johnny said.

  “Maybe we could just… go through the holes.”

  His buddy snorted. “You are an idiot, Snaggle.”

  “Screw you.”

  “I’m not wearing a net—you still interested?”

  “No wonder you wanted your freedom,” Bonita muttered to Qin.

  “Yeah.” A lump of sadness swelled in her throat. It had been more than six months since she’d escaped and started working for Bonita. Long enough to taste freedom and know how precious it was—to learn how much she didn’t want to give it up.

  “Go deal with the dock authority,” Johnny said. “Both of you. If we’re late getting back to the warship, the Druckers won’t leave you with a dick to use.”

  The two men tramped out, leaving Qin and Bonita alone in the room with Johnny.

  Qin liked that the odds had become better, but Johnny had already proven himself intelligent by seeing through their ruse and capturing them. She would have preferred that he’d gone and left the other two. Qin and Bonita mig
ht have been able to trick them.

  Johnny pulled a chair over to Bonita’s side and sat down. With the bed in the way, Qin couldn’t see either of them now, but her enhanced ears and nostrils told her much. In the quiet room, she could even hear their heartbeats. Bonita’s was surprisingly slow and steady, given the situation. Johnny’s was a little faster, and he smelled of sweat. Faint thumps sounded as one of his knees bounced up and down, the heel of his boot bumping the floor. Was he nervous? That surprised her.

  “I lied,” Johnny said.

  Bonita snorted. “Hear the shock in my voice.”

  “I am willing to deal. But we don’t have much time.”

  “Let me out of this net, and I’ll consider listening to you without interjecting snide comments.”

  “Really?” he asked. “I wouldn’t have guessed that was possible.”

  “I have amazing self-control.”

  “I’d tell you that was getting me excited, but I don’t want you to think I’m the sexual deviant Snaggle is.”

  “Too late.”

  Rustling sounded, followed by a click and a snap.

  Qin gaped. Had he freed her?

  Not that Johnny would feel threatened by Bonita. She was an excellent sharpshooter, but she didn’t have a weapon. Not unless she could get Johnny’s rifle away from him…

  “Free me, too, please,” Qin said as politely as she could manage. “I also won’t make snide comments.”

  “I don’t think your freedom would be conducive to my health,” Johnny said.

  “What?” Bonita asked. “Are you afraid she’d cut off your extra toes? Don’t you want to see what it’s like to go through life with a normal number?”

  “I think you’ll be more amenable to my proposition,” Johnny said, “if there aren’t bloody gouges in my feet.”

  “I’m completely indifferent to your feet.”

  “Are you? They seem to have nestled into a nook in your mind.”

  “Nestled into a nook?” Bonita snorted. “What kind of pirate are you?”

  “That’s what I want to discuss with you. I’m not a pirate.” Johnny lowered his voice. “I’m Bjarke, a knight from the Star Kingdom who was sent to spy on the Druckers almost a year ago. I’m one of two of Jager’s spies in System Cerberus keeping an eye on the pirate families here to make sure neither the Miners’ Union nor some other government with a militia pays them to become a threat to the Kingdom.”

  Qin was skeptical, but it was such a bizarre story to come out of a pirate’s mouth that she didn’t immediately scoff.

  Bonita, however, scoffed. Loudly. “I was just on Odin. None of the knights we saw had tattoos muddying up their good looks.”

  “I’d like to think the tattoos enhance my looks,” Johnny said, “but they are temporary. The man whose name I took had them. I had to look as much like him as possible so the Druckers wouldn’t be suspicious when I applied for a job. Technically, I let them kidnap me and convince me that it would be good for my health and career to become their accountant. Apparently, good bookkeepers are hard to come by in this system.”

  “Let’s pretend I believe you,” Bonita said. “What’s your proposition?”

  “I recently received new orders to head to System Hydra and Tiamat Station to help with a mess over there. I could steal a shuttle and get to the gate on my own, but it would be ideal if I left in such a way that I could come back to the Druckers later without suspicion. Which is why I’d like you to use your wit, and your hulking sidekick there, to overcome me, kidnap me, and take me off on your ship to sell to the highest bidder.”

  Bonita digested that for a few seconds. Qin didn’t know what to think, but it sounded like he was willing to let them escape… as long as they took him with them. Was that really true? Or was this some new trap? She didn’t believe he was a knight. Asger was a knight. Noble, respectful, brave, and unmarred by ugly tattoos or dog collars. She missed him.

  “Highest bidder?” Bonita asked. “You think the Druckers will believe someone is willing to bid money for you?”

  “If nothing else, my organs are in excellent shape. There’s a market for authentic ones rather than cybernetic replacements.” Johnny’s chair creaked as he leaned back in it. “I thought about staging my death, but you know how difficult that is to make plausible.”

  Qin couldn’t see the wryness on his face, but she could hear it in his voice.

  “I’m starting to hate you,” Bonita said.

  “No, you’re not. I’m handsome, witty, and delightful.”

  “Make that delusional.”

  “I need your decision quickly. We don’t have much time before those two get back. I’ll pay you ten thousand crowns for a ride to System Hydra—two thousand now and eight thousand once we get there—and you can either drop me off at Tiamat Station or transfer me to the warship Osprey. And I need you to say, if the pirates comm you, that you kidnapped me. Maybe you can say there’s a bounty on my head. That’s more believable than a sudden interest in selling my organs, I suppose.”

  “A bounty where? I’m sure they have access to the same job boards that I do.”

  “I can have the Kingdom issue something.”

  “If you’re really a knight, why can’t you have the Kingdom rescue you?”

  “They’re not here, and you are.”

  Bonita sighed. “Qin, what do you think?”

  “That if he frees us and we can get to the Dragon, I’m willing to fly along with him. Or help you put him in the brig.”

  “Yeah,” Bonita said. “That’s the deal, Toes. We’ll take you to Hydra, but you ride in a cell. And then we comm the Kingdom warship and see if they really want you.”

  “I assure you Captain Ishii will be pleased to have a knight offering his services.”

  The last Qin had heard, Captain Ishii already had a knight offering his services. Asger.

  “Uh huh,” Bonita said. “Why don’t I trust you?”

  “Because your life dealing with criminals and deadbeats has left you cynical and suspicious of everyone?”

  “That must be it. Let Qin go.”

  Johnny walked around the bed to crouch beside Qin. “May I have your word, Qin Liangyu Three, that you won’t attack me? As I mentioned, we’re short on time, and we need to use it to artfully arrange the room to make my kidnapping look plausible.”

  “I won’t attack you unless my captain tells me to.”

  “So my fate is in her hands? How fitting.” He tapped a key fob, and the net went limp. Another tap, and it rolled itself into a ball that he stuck in his helmet.

  Qin stood up, stretched her muscles, and faced Bonita. She raised her eyebrows, silently asking if Bonita believed anything Johnny was saying.

  Bonita shook her head slowly. No.

  On the Kingdom warship Osprey, heading from Tiamat Station to Xolas Moon, Kim waved at the door chime outside Casmir’s cabin. The door opened almost immediately.

  She was on the verge of pointing out that a man with a bounty on his head shouldn’t open his door without checking to see who was on the other side, but Zee, the six-and-a-half-foot-tall tarry black crusher, loomed inside like a wall of death.

  “Greetings, Kim Sato,” Zee said. “It is delightful to see you today.”

  Maybe less a wall of death and just a wall.

  “Thank you,” Kim said. “It’s, uh, good to see you too.”

  Casmir had programmed the crusher to protect her as well as himself, which had been handy on numerous occasions, but Kim still wasn’t that comfortable around him. She certainly didn’t share Casmir’s feeling of warmth toward Zee, who happened to look like the crushers that had tried to kill them back on Odin. But Casmir felt warmth toward all robots, sentient and not. A couple of days ago, he’d been lamenting parting ways with Viggo and his vacuums. It had taken a few seconds for him to remember to also lament parting ways with Qin and Bonita.

  “Please enter.” Zee stepped aside. “Will you speak with Casmir Dabrowski? I have o
bserved that he has been moody and withdrawn since leaving Tiamat Station.”

  “I’m not moody,” came Casmir’s voice from the desk around the corner. “I’m contemplative. And you’re only noticing my silence because you’re missing Tork.”

  “There is no reason why I would miss an inferior android.”

  “He stayed up all night playing network games with you.”

  “Androids and crushers do not sleep, so staying up all night is not an inconvenience. And I am a pleasure to game with.”

  Kim eyed Zee as she stepped into the cabin. “Casmir, your crusher has developed even more personality since I last saw him.”

  “You keep saying that as if it were a bug rather than a feature.”

  “You noticed.”

  At least Zee’s personality didn’t suggest he was inclined to quash humanity and take over the Twelve Systems. Overly clever AIs made some people nervous, since they had once revolted and headed off to claim Verloren Moon in System Cerberus for themselves. They’d stayed there—so far—instead of branching out to conquer any human governments, but there were rules and limitations against developing free-thinking computers now. Casmir might get in trouble if someone back home figured out how intelligent his crushers were. Not that he wasn’t already in trouble for a great many other things.

  “Have you been writing heartfelt apologies to King Jager?” Kim waved at the glowing light of the display at the desk where he sat. The rest of the room was dim, save for a soft red light beside the bed, since the night cycle had started on the Osprey.

  “No. Should I be?”

  “You were singlehandedly responsible for putting a new president into power on Tiamat Station, one who told the Kingdom to stuff it.”